Reading the Lightning Thief
by Lmb111514
Summary: During LH, Percy, Thalia, and Nico are sent back in time to read the PJ series with the Olympians -Hades and Hestia too-, Chiron, Annabeth, and Grover's past selves. Over time, other characters will be added in, some expected others not. better than sum!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, I decided to do a whole Percy Jackson characters reading the series with the Olympians. I have not forgotten about my other stories I'm just suffering from writers block on Thalia's decision,will update Only the Good Spy Young soon, and have to find the paper with the next chapter for Camme's big brother.  
>Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan, I'm a fourteen year old girl named Lisa, not a 30-something year old man who's one of the greatest authors I've ever read.<br>Well here's the first chapter!**

It has been three months since the whole titan war thing and I was walking around camp with my friends Nico and Thalia – I have to check the camp designs because of my wish every so often. A bunch of the gods were running around and talking to their children or other demigods. Ever since I made my wish the gods have been at camp almost every single day and it makes them and the demigods even happier than before. Suddenly we were caught up in a bright light and when the light disappeared we were in the Olympian throne room with our jaws hitting the floor. The throne room looked just like it did before the war! That can't be possible, I was just here yesterday looking at all the new designs!

I looked over at Nico and Thalia and the same thing passed between all of us: We went back in time. Suddenly the room was filled with a lot of bright lights and when all the lights disappeared the room was full of people. The room was filled with 15 Olympian gods that were standing in the middle of the room. Chiron was here too along with a young Grover and Annabeth. Almost everyone was arguing – Athena with Poseidon, Zeus with Hades, Hermes with Apollo, Ares with Hephaestus, Aphrodite with Artemis, Hera with Dionysus, Demeter with Persephone, but Annabeth and Grover were talking to Chiron, and Hestia was just quietly standing by the fire, smiling at us. Everybody suddenly stopped arguing when they saw us.

"Thalia?" Zeus asked.

"Father." Thalia said, bowing.

"How are you alive?" He asked when she stood up.

"I would tell you father but it is hard to explain." She said. Everybody else turned towards Nico and me. I saw shock cross both Poseidon's and Hades' faces.

"Who are you?" Zeus asked.

"I am Percy Jackson and this is Nico De Angelo." I said, gesturing to both of us.

"Why are you here?" Zeus asked. We shrugged.

"We got here the same way you did." Nico said.

"Seeing as you are with Thalia and are not shocked to see us then you must be half-bloods." Athena stated, we nodded.

"I do not remember you from camp, are you new?" Chiron asked.

"Sort of." I said. Everybody looked at me confused so I continued, "We're from the future." Understanding filled everyone faces, but there was still some confusion in them.

"Why were we brought here?" Artemis asked. Suddenly a package popped into the middle of the room. Athena walked over to it and opened it up. She took out a letter and read aloud:

Dear gods, Chiron, Grover, and half-bloods,

I have sent you five books to read. For most of you they will be the future but for some of you they will be the past. You must read them together; they will help you and will reveal lots of things to you. Please be wise while reading these and I hope you like them.

- Rhea 

"I guess we should read them." Artemis said.

"What are they called?" Hera asked.

"Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse, Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth, and Percy Jackson and the last Olympian." Athena read. I groaned and everybody looked at me.

"These books are about you?" Poseidon asked, I nodded. Everybody seemed to get more interested in them then.

"Well we should get started. I'll read first." Athena said, and started to read.

**"I accidentally vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher," **she read, raising an eyebrow at me.

"You vaporized your teacher?" Ares asked, astonished and I shrugged. Everybody stared at me for awhile and then Athena started to read again.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Not many people want to." Nico said, and everybody nodded in agreement.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lies your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

Thalia snorted, "Like that's going to work."

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"True." Chiron said, sighing.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great! Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

Everybody nodded and said, "Me too."

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they **_**sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"Who knew you could give out good advice!" Thalia said, impressed. I rolled my eyes.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn me." Nico stated.

"Well it was kind of hard for me to warn you since when I first saw you, you were being attacked by a monster!" I exclaimed, defending myself.

"Good point." Nico said.

**My name is Percy Jackson.** **I'm twelve years old. Until a **_**few **_**months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yeah." Nico and Thalia said.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"See even you admit it!" Nico exclaimed.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, **

"What happened?" Grover asked but I didn't answer.

**when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"What idiot would take them on a field trip?" Ares asked, confused. I tried to hold in my laughter but failed. Everybody looked at me like I was crazy.

"Why are you laughing?" Zeus asked.

"You'll see." I said when I stopped laughing.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

**Most Yancy field trips were. **

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

Everybody burst out laughing when they figured out who Mr. Brunner was.

"I can see why you were laughing before!" Ares said, between laughs. Chiron looked down, embarrassed.

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"I'm glad you liked my class!" Chiron said, smiling.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

Everyone was more interested in the story when I said that.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

Everybody stopped to laugh. "What were you shooting for?" Apollo asked, laughing. I thought for a second.

"I don't know." I said.

"Probably a monster." Artemis said.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that...well, you get the idea.**

"Wow you don't have any good luck at field trips do you?" Hermes asked, chuckling. I looked down sheepishly.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"I wonder how well that's going to go!" Apollo said, still laughing.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover-**

Everybody stared at Grover and me.

"You guys are best friends?" Hera asked.

"Yea but not yet in your time." I said.

**-in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Ewww, This girl is disgusting!" Aphrodite exclaimed.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"I love how you think of me!" Grover said, sarcastically.

"Well I was 12 years old! How else did you expect me to see you?" I said, defensively. He shrugged.

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

Everybody chuckled while Grover blushed sheepishly.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me by death with in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Well that won't be a fun field trip!" Hermes complained, and Ares agreed.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

Everybody chuckled. "That's Grover for you!" Annabeth said, smiling.

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.** **In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

I sighed, thinking about what happened on the field trip and what it all led to. Everybody stared at me for awhile and then they jumped back into the book more interested.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

Everybody laughed, remembering who he was.

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.** **It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years!**

Dionysus snorted, "We've survived for longer then that and I don't see people praising us for it!" He exclaimed.

"Well people don't know that we exist, remember?" Athena stated, while Dionysus pouted.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele, **_**for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodd's, would give me the evil eye. **

**Mrs. Dodd's was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. **

Athena and Annabeth remembered the named of the chapter and they both had the same theory but they waited till more information came to say it.

**She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"I wonder what she did to get rid of her." Thalia whispered to me.

"Me too." I whispered back.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodd's loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

Hades thought that that sounded like one of his furies but he didn't speak his thought out loud.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodd's was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"She's probably a monster." Artemis said, and everybody was tense.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.** **Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up**_**?"**

Everybody chuckled but it was still tense from Artemis's comment.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.** **The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "Did you have a comment?"**

"That's Chiron alright!" Annabeth said, while everybody laughed.

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

All the gods groaned. "You had to pick that carving, didn't you?" Zeus asked.

Thalia, Nico, and I sighed, thinking about the war we had against him. Everybody looked at us weirdly but continued the story.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied,** **"And he **_**did **_**this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,**

"God?" Poseidon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought you taught your students better than this Chiron!" Zeus exclaimed.

**and—"**

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

Apollo groaned. "Can we please skip this history lesson?" He complained.

"No." Athena said, before continuing.

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

**"Ewww!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Yes it was disgusting." Demeter said.

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "And the gods won."**

"Of course we did! We're awesome!" Apollo exclaimed.

**Some snickers came from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "To paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted." Grover muttered.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

Everybody chuckled at Grover repeating himself.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Of course he does." Annabeth said, smiling.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodd's, would you lead us back outside?"**

Everybody laughed at the end of this.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Of course they are!" Artemis said, scowling.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"They have." Athena stated.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

"He's already answered that question." Annabeth answered, rolling her eyes.

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry; this guy pushed me so hard.**

"I have to push you so you'll learn." Chiron said.

"I know." I stated.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever **_**lived, **_**and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"That sounds like fun!" Hermes exclaimed.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be **_**as good; **_**he expected me to be **_**better. **_**And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"Are you still just as bad?" Athena asked.

"No I've gotten a lot better thanks to my friends." I said.

"Mostly Annabeth." Nico muttered laughing, so only me and Thalia could hear. Thalia started to laugh.

"Nice one Nico!" She said high fiving him while I made a face at them.

"What are you laughing about?" Zeus asked. They suddenly stopped laughing.

"Nothing!" They exclaimed. Athena raised her eyebrows but continued reading.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

Chiron sighed, "I probably was."

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

"It seems like your angry father." Athena said.

"I wonder why?" He asked, I sighed and looked down. Everybody stared at me but quickly turned back to the book when they saw I wasn't going to explain.

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

Everyone looked at Zeus weirdly.

"What?" He exclaimed.

"Just wondering what you're angry about." Poseidon explained.

"How should I know?" He said.

"Well it must be important if you're making hurricanes happen." Hermes said.

"It is." I said, without thinking. Everybody looked at me.

"You know what he's angry about?" Athena asked.

"Of course I do! I am from the future." I explained.

"Do you guys know?" Athena asked, turning to Nico and Thalia.

"I was still a tree at this time." Thalia said.

"And I didn't know anything about this stuff at that time." Nico said.

"When do you guys appear in these books?" Athena asked.

"Second book." Thalia said.

"Third book." Nico answered.

Athena nodded and started to read again.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodd's wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that **_**school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"Too late." Ares said, chuckling.

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"That's the understatement of the year." Thalia said, laughing while Nico high fived her.

"You guys love to pick on me, don't you?" I said.

"Of course we do!" Nico said.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Everybody burst out laughing. "Sorry." Grover said sheepishly.

"It's okay man." I said.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

I smiled, thinking about my mom.

"Awww." Thalia and Nico said at the same time. I rolled my eyes and Poseidon smiled at me. Athena looked at both of us suspiciously but continued to read, a theory forming in her head.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Having fun there Chiron?" Apollo said, laughing.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

Annabeth looked furious, Chiron looked surprised, Thalia and Nico looked angry, and all the gods were shocked. I sighed, thinking that this was what started it all, that one little thing led to my life right now. Everybody looked at me, confused as to why I sighed but I just shook my head and gestured for Athena to keep reading.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Charming." Hera said, coldly.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"Wave?" Everybody – except for Thalia, Nico, Poseidon, and me – said, looking at Poseidon suspiciously.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodd's materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

Everyone was staring at Poseidon angrily, while Zeus and Hades looked downright murderous.

"You broke the oath!" They yelled at Poseidon, standing up.

"It's a good thing he did too!" Nico exclaimed, before realizing what he had said and covered his mouth. Everybody turned to Nico.

"What do you mean?" Hermes asked.

"Let's just say that if Percy wasn't born the whole world would be a bottomless pit and everything would be in chaos." Thalia said. Everybody stared at her, confused.

"No the world wouldn't be like that!" I said. Nico snorted.

"If you weren't born, the prophecy would've been passed down to…that person, which wouldn't work since they're only 13 and we'd have to wait 3 years until it would be fulfilled, and by then…they would have won the war. Humans would be slaves, gods forced to pick their side or rot in Tartarus, Heroes thrown with them if they refused; camp destroyed, towns destroyed, Peace extinguished, families separated and destroyed, people starving on the streets and dying, people-" Nico argued but was interrupted by me.

"Okay, Okay, I get it, I get it! The world would be horrible if I wasn't born! Seriously, you didn't have to go that far into it. And don't you think you let out a little too much information?" I asked him, exasperated.

"Sorry just had to get that of my chest." Nico said, blushing.

"What did you mean by that?" Athena asked, shocked and confused. I sighed.

"If we told you it would ruin all the books and we wouldn't even have to be here anymore." I stated. She looked ready to argue but Zeus sighed and gestured for her to keep reading.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodd's was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodd's turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. **

Everybody looked really tense when Athena read this.

**"Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Why would you say that, Seaweed brain?" Annabeth yelled, shocked. I blushed.

"Wow, even though she barely knows you she still calls you that name." Thalia stated.

"I guess you're just destined for that name!" Nico said, laughing while I made a face at him.

"What name?" Annabeth asked, confused.

"Seaweed brain." Thalia and Nico stated.

"Wait I know him?" She asked. They burst out laughing.

"Yes you guys come to be great friends!" Nico said, breathlessly, still laughing.

"Wait, a child of Athena becomes friends with a child of Poseidon?" Artemis asked, astonished.

"Yea they're very close, even though they argue a lot." Thalia said.

"Yea, I don't think I've ever lived one day without them arguing, except-" Nico stopped talking and laughing and looked down as did Thalia and I, we were thinking about the war and all our dying friends.

"What?" Hermes asked. I sighed.

"Nothing, please continue." I said. Athena looked ready to argue but decided against it and started to read again.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodd's said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I **_**pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodd's scared Grover to death.** **She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—**_**will**_—**stay—here."**

Everybody tensed at this part. They knew something was going to happen.

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodd's barked at me. "**_**Now**_**."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

"I really don't like this girl." Poseidon said angrily. Everybody nodded in agreement.

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.** **Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodd's, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.** **I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodd's.**

I sighed. I should've just ran away, getting in trouble with school wasn't going to be a problem since I already was going to get expelled anyway.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"It must have been a good book!" Apollo said, but everybody was to tense to answer.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodd's had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"I don't think that's the plan." Annabeth said. I sighed. I knew it wasn't the plan now.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

More tension filled the air when they heard that sentence.

**Mrs. Dodd's stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

All the gods glared at the book.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodd's. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

"Us?" Hermes said, "What does she mean by that?" Nobody answered him.

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"Good." Athena said.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"With what?" Zeus asked, looking at me but I didn't answer him.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

Everybody sighed, they wished that was true.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

Everybody looked at Zeus accusingly.

"How does this involve you?" Hades asked. Zeus shrugged.

"It involves him a lot." I said, sighing. They all stared at me confused, but got back to the book.

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodd's said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

"Less pain? Oh yea that's very reassuring." Grover said sarcastically, his eyes slitting in terror.

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"Of course you didn't! We have no clue either!" Athena exclaimed.

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.** **Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer **_**from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"It's actually a really good book." Annabeth said.

"Maybe I'll read it when I get back to my time. Who knows?" I answered.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

"That wasn't very much time!" Poseidon said, angrily.

"Well the furies don't really like to give heroes time." Hades stated.

"You sent a fury after a 12 year old boy!" Poseidon yelled, astonished and furious.

"I guess so. It sounds like one." Hades explained.

"He had a good reason to." I answered, speaking to myself. Everybody looked at me weirdly but got back to reading.

**Then the weirdest thing happened, her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.** **Then things got even stranger.**

"What could be stranger than your teacher turning into a fury right before your eyes?" Apollo asked.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"Oh that." Apollo stated. I just sighed. That was the first time I used my favorite sword, riptide.

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodd's lunged at me.**

Everyone was at the edge of their seats when this was said.

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

Everyone seemed to relax but only a little.

**Mrs. Dodd's spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"Ha! That's a nice thing to say!" Artemis said, sarcastically.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.** **The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!**_

**Mrs. Dodd's was a sand castle in a power fan. **

"Wow, impressive description." Athena and Annabeth stated.

"Thanks." I stated proudly.

**She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur, a dying screech, and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

Everybody was shocked.

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

"The mist is still affecting you after that!" Annabeth yelled.

"Well sorry, but I was just attacked by a kindly one!" I argued, defending myself.

"And there they go fighting." Thalia showed. I made a face at her and leaned back in my seat.

"Could it have turned back into its pen form instead of the mist?" Hestia asked. I thought for a second.

"Yea it probably did." I decided.

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Magic mushrooms?" Poseidon asked raising an eyebrow. I shrugged.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Nope." Nico said.

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Grover asked.

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our **_**teacher.**_ **Duh!"**

"The mist is that strong?" Nico asked.

"Yes." Hestia said.

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodd's was.**

**He said, "Who?"** **But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Grover you need to try harder." Annabeth said, sighing.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

Everybody looked at Zeus accusingly again.

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.** **I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

Everybody laughed.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "Where's Mrs. Dodd's?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodd's. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodd's on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodd's at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Chiron, How do you do that?" I asked, curious.

"When you live as long as I have, you learn things." He said.

"That's the end of the chapter. Who wants to read next?" Athena asked.

"I will." Zeus said, taking the book.

**Hope you liked it and I'll update the next chapter soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the second chapter! I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer:…wait let me see…nope still a 14 year old girl!**

Chapter 2

"**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death," **Zeus read and stopped. I sighed, remembering what happened that day and what I found out but didn't understand.

"Three old ladies?" He asked.

"Probably the fates." Hephaestus said.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"That was really annoying." I stated, remembering it.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodd's reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, **

"That's not going to work." Hermes said, chuckling.

**but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"I would too if I were them." Ares stated, chuckling.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodd's had never existed.**

Grover and Chiron breathed a sigh of relief.

"Didn't you just hear what he said?" Annabeth asked, "He said _almost."_

**Almost.**

"You know him so well." Thalia said, impressed. Annabeth shrugged.

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

Grover groaned.

**When I mentioned the name Dodd's to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"You need to work on your lying skills, Grover." Hermes advised, chuckling.

**Something was going on. Something **_**had **_**happened at the museum.**

"No, really?" Hades asked, sarcastically.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodd's with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Tell me about it." Nico whispered in my ear, sighing.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"You must be really angry father." Athena said.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.** **I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"Wow Percy, I can't believe you aren't expelled yet!" Thalia exclaimed.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

Everybody laughed.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

"Now you're expelled!" Nico stated.

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

I glared at the book.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view** **of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,**

"Thanks man." Grover said, smiling.

**even if he was a little strange.**

He stopped smiling.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"He'd probably stop going to that school." Dionysus said, absentmindedly.

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

Chiron smiled.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"Only test?" Athena asked, astonished.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Good." Poseidon said.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology **_**across my dorm room. **

"Sorry." I muttered after getting glares from Athena and Annabeth.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"How can you not tell those apart?" Athena exclaimed in disbelief.

"I meant the spelling." I stated.

"Oh, I knew that." She stated sheepishly, blushing.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"Okay." Hermes stated chuckling.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Oh I know you tried or you'd be dead." Chiron said.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**_**"...**_ **worried about Percy, sir."**

Grover groaned.

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,** **but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Good point, it would be hard." Nico said.

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they **_**know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

Nico and Thalia laughed.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line— **_**"**_

"What summer solstice deadline?" Hephaestus asked but nobody answered him.

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he **_**saw **_**her..."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Everybody looked at Thalia confused.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

Grover and Chiron groaned.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"Why would you have your bow out?" Athena asked, He shrugged.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop, **_**like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"What happened?" Hermes asked but nobody answered him.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

"That's the worst part about repeating school." Grover said, scowling.

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, **

"That's not going to work." Grover said.

"I know." I said, sighing.

**and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"I'm hungry!" Apollo whined, "When are we going to eat lunch?"

"We'll eat after this chapter, ok?" Artemis stated, asking everyone and everyone nodded which seemed to calm Apollo down.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"Three hour!" Nico yelled.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"This girl is getting on my bad side." Poseidon said angrily.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"I don't think that what he meant." Annabeth said.

"I know that now." I said.

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

"That didn't really work for you did it Chiron?" Hermes asked. Chiron sighed, looking down.

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich **_**juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"I wouldn't really call your family nobodies, considering who your father is." Artemis said. I shrugged.

"I didn't know about any of that around that time." I said.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"Or you could go to a cool camp." Apollo said.

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,**

"What a coincidence!" Hades said, pretending to be shocked.

**so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Sorry." I said.

"It's okay." Grover answered.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much **_**did **_**you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. **

Grover snorted.

**What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodd's, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

Everybody laughed.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, **

"Why are the cards like that?" Hestia wondered.

"I made them like that, it's funny to see how they try to read it." Dionysus admitted, chuckling while everyone else rolled their eyes at his antics.

**but I finally made out something like:**

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800)**_ _**009-0009**_

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Grover asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You weren't mean and stuck up like everybody else there." I explained.

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me.**_

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

"Ewww." Aphrodite said.

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes of clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. **

Grover sighed sadly, "So much trash destroying nature these days."

**On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice**_**. **_**There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Tension filled the air.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Everybody looked very uncomfortable at this while I looked down sadly; knowing what was going to happen and trying not to look at Hermes.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

Everybody looked as hard as stone.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

Everybody sighed, why couldn't Percy just listen to him for once!

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that **_**snip **_**across four lanes of traffic.**

"So that snip was meant for…him?" Nico asked me quietly while Thalia listened in. I nodded and they both looked down sadly.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

Everybody laughed but they were still shaken up about the snip of the yarn.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

Everybody looked at me sadly and confused.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodd's, are they?"**

"No they're much, much worse." Apollo said, sadly.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodd's. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

"Perceptive." Athena said, nodding.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"Of course it is, seaweed brain!" Annabeth exclaimed.

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

Again everybody looked at Thalia questioningly.

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

Everybody looked at Thalia and me, confused.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

"I have a feeling you are going to ditch him." Hermes stated, pretending he had a beard. Everybody rolled their eyes and went back to the book.

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

"You never did answer my questions." I said, sighing.

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"** **He just looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That's the end of the chapter." Zeus said and Apollo jumped up from his throne and ran towards the door yelling, "LUNCHTIME!" everyone rolled their eyes and chuckled at his antics as they followed him out the door to the Olympus throne room.

**Well that's the second chapter I hope you liked it! I'll update either tomorrow or the next day but I have no clue which but it will have lunchtime and the third chapter being read.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

When we got to the room we saw that Apollo was already digging into the food and we went to the side where he hadn't touched. After we got our food we saw a fire pit right next to the table and Nico, Thalia, Annabeth, and I walked over there. Nico was first and sacrificed to Hades when none of the gods, Chiron, Grover, or Annabeth were watching. After he did I saw Hades sit up straight and genuinely smile to the gods utter confusion but they didn't ask. Next it was Thalia who sacrificed to Artemis and Zeus who both smiled at her and went back to eating. Then it was Annabeth who of course sacrificed to Athena who smiled at her in return. Lastly I sacrificed to dad who stopped eating and beamed at me, he had probably missed to feeling of a sacrifice as had Hades and Zeus since it has been a while since they had a kid to sacrifice to them. I sat down and started to eat. All the gods were talking to each other –Zeus with Hermes and Apollo, Ares with Dionysus, Hephaestus with Hestia and Chiron, Poseidon with Hades, Demeter with Persephone, and Athena with Hera, Aphrodite, and Artemis- Grover was talking to Annabeth, and Thalia with Nico while I just sat quietly and ate. Suddenly Aphrodite broke away from her conversation and walked over to me.

"Hello Perseus." She stated.

"Hello Lady Aphrodite and you call me Percy by the way." I stated politely and she smiled at me.

"So did you want to ask me something?" I asked, taking a drink of my coke.

"Yes, I wanted to know if you have a girlfriend in the future." She stated and I choked on my drink which made everybody look this way.

"What?" I asked, coughing wildly.

"I want to know who you're dating so I can start setting up your love life!" She exclaimed happily.

"H-how do you know if I'm dating someone?" I asked.

"Because as the love goddess I can sense your love for her coming off you in wave and I know that it is true love since it is the strongest love I've felt in a long time." She stated and I blushed. She gasped.

"So you do!" She exclaimed. I blushed harder but nodded. She squealed and clapped her hands together.

"Who is it? Tell me her name?" She demanded brightly.

"Ummm…" I stated.

"Oh I see, you don't want anybody to know because she's a demi-god and her parent might get mad, right?" She guessed, I was shocked that she figured that out but nodded.

"Does her parent hate you that much?" She wondered.

"Well I don't know if she hates me but it seems like it." I stated.

"So it's a she! The god is her mother!" She exclaimed. _Oopps,_ I stated, _I'd given her gender away._

"So she's either a daughter of Demeter, Athena, or me!" She exclaimed, "We can rule out all the other Goddesses because I can sense she's a daughter of an Olympian and the other Olympian goddesses are virgins," She turned around to the other gods -who started talking again after seeing I was alright- directly to Demeter, "Demeter?" She asked and she looked over at Aphrodite, "Do you hate Percy?" She asked.

"No he seems like a great boy, so I have nothing against him." She stated, turning back to her conversation. Aphrodite nodded and turned back to me.

"Well I have nothing against you so that only leave Athena but that's imposs-" She stopped, seeing my face go redder, and gasped extremely loud, making everybody look this way in confusion and curiosity, "It's her?" She asked and I blushed harder, she gasped and screamed, "NO WAY!" jumping up and down while clapping her hands in the process.

"What? What happened?" Dad asked, confused and curious but Aphrodite ignored him.

"I've always wanted to get two of you together and now it's happening!" She exclaimed, still jumping up and down while I blushed harder.

"Two of what?" Hera asked but Aphrodite ignored her too.

"And your love for her is amazing!" She exclaimed while I blushed even harder.

"Love? For who?" Dad asked.

"For his girlfriend of course!" She exclaimed to him.

"Who is it?" Persephone asked.

"Well I actually don't know, I only know that she's a demi-god, he loves her very much, and who her Olympian parent is." She stated.

"Then who is it Percy?" Athena asked while everybody –except for Nico and Thalia since they already knew- looked at me.

"Ummm…you'll probably find out during the books." I stated nervously. Everyone looked mad that I wouldn't tell them but knew that they wouldn't get it out of me so they went back to eating.

"Wait…" Aphrodite said and seemed to concentrate hard on something. Suddenly I heard Aphrodite's voice in my head saying: _Who is it? _Involuntarily my eyes flickered to Annabeth who was eating some bread and I glanced somewhere else before Aphrodite could notice but she did. She gasped, covering her mouth and everybody looked back over here, wondering what was going on now.

"Really?" She asked and I blushed but nodded and she squealed loudly completely oblivious to everybody staring at us in confusion.

"Thanks for letting me know! Talk to you later!" She exclaimed. She backed away and walked out the door before anybody could ask her what she meant and they all looked at me for an explanation. I, not wanting to tell them, jumped up from the table, threw the rest of my food away, and ran out the door after her, back to the throne room. When I got there I sat down in my chair, glancing at Aphrodite -who was of course beaming at me-, taking deep breaths. A couple minutes later everybody else wandered in, looking confused, but they didn't ask any questions as they sat down.

"So who will read the next chapter?" Zeus asked, picking up the book. Artemis raised her hand and he passed the book down to her. When she got it she opened it up to the right chapter and started to read.

"**Grover unexpectedly loses his Pants," **Artemis said, raising an eyebrow at Grover.

"Why'd you lose your pants, Grover?" Nico asked, laughing and Grover blushed.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Sorry." I said to Grover.

"It's okay." He stated, sighing.

"I knew it!" Hermes yelled, "I told you he would but you just ignored me!" everyone rolled their eyes and did just what he said they had done.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

"That would've scared me too!" Demeter exclaimed.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

Grover sighed, "I can't believe I left you!"

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.** **Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, **

"Ahhh! That's so sweet!" Hera cooed and all the goddesses, even Artemis, nodded their heads in agreement.

**which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

"Your mom doesn't seem to have much bad luck." Thalia said and Nico nodded.

"Now she doesn't but before she did." I said.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. **

"Wow Poseidon, I'm impressed." Athena stated, "You found a great woman." She finished and dad smiled.

"That I did." He agreed.

**Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"I see what you meant about the bad luck." Thalia said sadly, and Nico nodded. They had both met my mom and know how amazingly nice she is.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

Dad smiled genuinely at that thought which made all the goddesses, except for Artemis, go 'Awwwww!'.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. **

"I visited you once." Dad stated and I smiled.

"I know." I said.

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because **_**it **_**makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. **

"Of course it was, he wouldn't want us to find out." Hades stated making everybody jump since he had been so quiet we had forgotten he was here.

**Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"At least you hope for things." Nico said.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"She's amazing." Hestia stated and everyone nodded in agreement.

"She truly is." Dad stated.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him,**

"And that's being nice to him!" I said coldly, remembering him.

**then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"Why would your mom marry him anyway?" Nico asked. I sighed sadly, remembering she did it for me.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her,**

"How'd he treat her?" Dad asked, worried.

"You'll see." I stated.

**the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

"What happened?" Thalia asked.

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"Ewww!" Aphrodite said.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"He asked you for money?" Athena said, shocked.

**That was it. No **_**Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**_

"What would you have done if he would've said those things?" Thalia asked.

"I'd probably die of shock." I stated, chuckling.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"Disgusting pig!" Artemis said, scowling.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"He punched you?" Dad yelled, clenching his fists, half ready to go down there and punch Gabe's lights out. I glaring furiously at the book, remembering that he'd hit my mom, a pretending I didn't here dad because I didn't want to tell him that he used to hit me when I was young, mostly around five through 9. Everybody was confused and afraid of how I was glaring at the book and they fortunately did notice that I had ignored dad's question. Let's just say I was looking at the book a thousand times worse than murderous. I hoped dad would drop the question but he didn't.

"Percy, did he hit you?" He wondered.

"He hit mom." I stated truthfully. He got angry and Apollo and Ares stood up ready to restrain him if he tried to get up so he could teleport down there to kill Gabe.

"Percy, Did. He. Punch. You. Too?" He demanded desperately.

I sighed, looked down, and muttered, "Yes." He growled and stood up from his throne murderously. Ares and Apollo tried to restrain him but couldn't.

"Dad calm down!" I yelled, "Don't worry he get his Karma soon you'll just have to wait, trust me!" He looked down at me, seemed to come to an agreement, and reluctantly sat down in his throne.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

Everybody looked disgusted at that.

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

Everybody chuckled at that.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least he's a little more decent man." Artemis said, disgusted.

**"Am I **_**right**_**?**_**" **_**Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Ewww! These guys are disgusting!" Aphrodite said.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

Everyone laughed at that.

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"Is there anything about this guy that is not disgusting?" Annabeth asked.

"No." I said.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

Everyone looked at me like I was crazy but continued to read and listen to the book.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodd's,**

"It was that bad?" Nico asked, astonished. I nodded.

**or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

Everyone paled remembering that.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

Dad smiled.

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.**

"That's because she understands all the bad things." Thalia said, smiling.

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"Yum!" Nico said, smiling.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?** **I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

Nico snickered, but I ignored him, thinking about her and how much happier she was with Paul.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

As did everybody else in the room.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Paul's not a millionaire." Nico whispered in my ear.

"So, she's still happy with him." I whispered back.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.**

**I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

"Wow you must really miss the place." Zeus said.

**Until that trip to the museum...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

I sighed, I should of told her about it right then, maybe the future would have been different.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodd's and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"No she would understand." Thalia said.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

Dad smiled.

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."** **I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

Everybody was angry when that was said and dad was half ready to go down their and hit him when he found him.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

Everybody got even angrier when they heard that.

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?" **

Everybody groaned.

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"She's has to bribe him with food! That pig!" Aphrodite exclaimed.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"Out of her clothes budget! This guy is a horrible disgusting pig!" Aphrodite exclaimed, furious.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

Everybody groaned again.

"This was a good example." I said.

"Wait, this happens all the time?" Dad asked.

"Pretty much." I said. He looked murderous.

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"He gave you money isn't that enough?" Hera yelled at the book.

"Nope." I said coldly.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Everybody burst out laughing when they read that and dad yelled, "Do it!"

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

"Awww!" Everybody whined.

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

I sighed sadly again, remembering why she stayed with him.

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"Don't try to hard." Athena said, coldly.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

"She knew you were in danger too." Poseidon said.

"How?" Zeus asked.

"She can see through the mist." We both said and understanding filled Zeus's face.

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

Everybody groaned again.

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

"Good." Thalia said.

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

Everybody groaned again.

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"You should just scratch it once because of that!" Hermes said, mock-seriously while I burst out laughing, remembering what happened.

"I take it the car doesn't make it back?" Athena said, I nodded.

"Why not?" Apollo asked, I stopped laughing, remembering why it didn't and what had happened to my mom.

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

"Wow." Apollo and Hermes stated.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"Good." Hestia said.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

"Nice!" Nico said, smiling.

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,**

Athena and Annabeth shivered and had a disgusted look on their face.

**and most of the time the sea was to cold to swim in. **

"That bothers you?" Nico asked.

"Nope." I said, smiling.

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

Poseidon smiled.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

I smiled; my mom had been looking like that a lot more since she met Paul.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"That would be nice." Dionysus said.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"Good." Apollo said.

"How rebellious are you?" Hermes asked, I shrugged. Thalia and Nico chuckled.

"Try majorly rebellious." Nico said.

"Extremely rebellious." Thalia said.

"Rebellious enough to pick a fight with anyone, and I mean anyone!" Nico said, still laughing.

"Even us?" Hera asked. Thalia turned thoughtful.

"He actually did pick a fight with Ares once." She said. Everybody looked shocked. Annabeth smacked me upside the head but since I bathed in the river Styx and I'm almost invincible it didn't hurt me and back fired on her.

"Ow!" She screamed, holding her hand.

"That's what you get for hitting him." Nico said.

"That didn't even hurt you?" Annabeth asked, still rubbing her hand. I started to speak but Nico answered for me instead.

"Of course it didn't! What do you expect from someone who bathed in the river Styx and-" Nico covered his mouth, realizing that he had just told them something important about the future.

"Great now that they know that, let's tell them why I did that and then tell them all about the future!" I said, sarcastically.

"Sorry, wasn't thinking." Nico said.

"You bathed in the river Styx?" Hades yelled.

"Don't get mad at him he had to do it. It was my plan anyway." Nico said.

"It was?" Poseidon asked, Nico nodded.

"Why? And what gives you the right to allow him to visit the underworld and let him do that?" Hera asked suspiciously.

"If we tell you now it will ruin all the books because they all lead up to it." I said, gesturing for Artemis to continue.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

I hoped I'd get to read one of them someday from the store.

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

Everybody raised their eyebrows at me.

"What?" I exclaimed.

"Nothing." They muttered turning back to the book.

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Everybody looked from me to Poseidon and seemed to realize that I did.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"Well anybody who has a brain and common sense would be proud of what you've done since you started camp." Nico said a little too loud. Everybody turned to look at him.

"What else did he do other then bathing in the river Styx?" Zeus asked.

"All the things you find out in these books and read about are what he did." Nico said.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

"That's kind of harsh." Nico said, and I nodded.

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"You watched over him when he was a child?" Zeus said, raising an eyebrow. Poseidon looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"As if you didn't do the same thing with Thalia." He stated. Zeus looked down and gestured for Artemis to keep reading. I looked over at Thalia and saw she was flattered about what Poseidon said.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

"Seems like he did." Aphrodite said.

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

I shook my head; I can't believe how much I didn't know before.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

It looked like Annabeth was about to hit me but she remembered what happened before and she thought better of it.

"Why would you say that, seaweed brain?" She asked, shocked. I shrugged.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"Good." Thalia said.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I **_**have **_**to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"Exactly." Thalia said.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"A Cyclops was stalking you? Aren't they like your brothers?" Apollo asked, I nodded, sighing, thinking about Tyson.

"What's with him?" Hermes asked Nico and Thalia. They looked at each other then back at Hermes.

"He's thinking about Tyson." They said at the same time. Hermes looked confused.

"You'll find out about him in the second book." They said, gesturing to Artemis to keep reading.

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Impressive." Apollo said.

"I don't think that was a monster attack." Artemis said.

"Still impressive." Apollo repeated, shrugging.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

"Must have been annoying." Grover said.

"It was." I answered.

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodd's at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

I sighed; I should've told her right then and there. It would've saved me a lot of trouble.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"She didn't want to let you go." Poseidon stated.

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

"If you want it to be." Chiron interjected.

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"This should be good." Ares said.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

"What are you guys fighting about now?" Hera asked, and both Poseidon and Zeus shrugged.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

Everyone looked at Hades but seem to doubt that it was him.

"You were even dreaming about him this early in your life?" Nico asked me quietly. I sighed.

"It seems like it." I answered.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, **

Zeus shot up from his throne, "Ha! I won!" He exclaimed making everyone jump but quietly sat down as he felt everybody glaring at him.

**and I screamed, **_**No!**_

**I woke with a start.**

Everybody calmed down a little bit when they heard that part but they were still tense.

**Outside, it really was storming; the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

"It must be very important to be fighting like that." Athena said, while everybody looked at me again. Artemis jumped back into the book so no questions would be asked and I shot her a grateful look.

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. **

"How could you forget!" Apollo yelled at Poseidon, laughing while Artemis rolled her eyes at him and continued to read.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

Everybody was tense.

"Could that be…?" Nico asked, looking at me but I didn't answer.

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.** **My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

"Why would she do that? It could be a monster trying to kill them!" Hermes yelled, earning a glare from Athena.

"Didn't you just hear Artemis say it was a desperate voice and it was banging on the door? What kind of monster would do that?" She asked and he shrugged. Everybody glared at him but I just couldn't do it. He knew what Luke's destiny was right now and I just couldn't make him feel any worse since he is going to be reading these books about his son's betrayal. I know he will be proud of Luke in the end.

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"What was he then?" Hermes asked in a quiet voice, people were still glaring at him.

"Whenever I saw him before he was wearing fake feet and pants and right then he was just a satyr, no shoes or pants on." I explained nicely to him, not caring that I wasn't waiting till the book said it. Everybody looked at me confused, they had never heard me speak to someone like that, not even Poseidon. Thalia and Nico seemed to understand.

"The prophecy about him?" Nico asked and I nodded.

"He knows right now?" Thalia asked and I nodded. They all looked at Hermes sympathetically. He looked confused at first but understood a while later.

"His destiny?" He asked, and we nodded.

"You know that I know it right now?" He asked, and we nodded again. He looked down sadly.

"It must be a horrible thing to know before it happens." I said. He looked up at me and I could see sorrow and misery in his eyes.

"It is, but I will be proud of him when it happens." He said.

"I know, I've heard you talk about him after it." I said. He looked taken aback.

"It's already happened in your time?" He asked, I nodded, "Is it in these books?" I sighed and nodded. He looked down sadly, probably not wanting to hear about it.

"Can someone please explain what's going on here!" Zeus said, and everybody nodded in agreement. I looked at him.

"It gets explained in the books." I answered. He sighed and gestured for Artemis to continue reading.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

"That you freaked him out." Nico stated.

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

"Oh nothing just about some monster attacks!" Nico said simply.

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

_**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" **_**he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you **_**tell **_**her?"**

"What's right behind you?" Hades asked but nobody answered.

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—**

**and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

"What is it?" Nico asked. Pretending to not know.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: **_**"Percy. **_**Tell me **_**now**_**!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodd's, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. **_**Go**_**!**_**"**_

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

"About time." Dionysus said but everybody just ignored him.

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"That's the end of the chapter, who wants to read next?" Artemis asked, holding the book out.

"I will." Hermes said sadly, grabbing the book.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys here's the fourth chapter I hope you like it!  
>Disclaimer: Still a fourteen year old girl.<strong>

Chapter Four

"**My Mother Teaches me Bullfighting," **Hermes said. Everybody looked at me.

"Don't ask." I muttered, gesturing for him to keep reading.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

"Shag carpet pants?" Aphrodite said, raising an eyebrow.

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

Everybody chuckled.

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us.**

"He was looking for monsters." Hephaestus explained.

**"Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

"STALKER!" Apollo yelled and everyone rolled their eyes at him.

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I **_**am **_**your friend."**

"Good." Hestia said, smiling.

**"Urn ... what **_**are **_**you, exactly?"**

Everyone chuckled at that.

"How nice of you to ask like that Percy?" Hermes joked, laughing while I blushed in embarrassment.

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

"He's going to get angry at you for saying that." Annabeth said, matter-of-factly.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty **_**"Blaa-ha-ha!"**_

"See, told you." She said.

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a **_**goat **_**from the waist down."**

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

"Yea Grover! Changing your mind?" Nico teased, laughing with Hades. Everybody was staring at Hades, shocked. He never laughs, not through this whole book, never! He looked down and gestured for Hermes to keep reading.

_**"Blaa-ha-ha!**_ **There are satyrs who would trample you under hoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a **_**myth, **_**Percy? Was Mrs. Dodd's a myth?"**

**"So you **_**admit **_**there was a Mrs. Dodd's!"**

Everybody mockingly gasped.

"Ha ha very funny!" I said.

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

"Because you were a bad liar." Dionysus said, earning a glare from everybody.

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

Everybody tensed at this part.

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

Everybody glared at Hades.

"What's your part in this?" Poseidon asked him angrily, he shrugged.

"Pretty much the same as Zeus's." I said. Everybody – including Nico and Thalia – looked at me, confused.

"And what's Zeus's reason?" Athena asked.

"You'll find that out in about four chapters or so." I stated. They groaned but got back to the book.

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

"Not if you don't want them to get in a car crash." Nico said.

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

"And your dream that night wasn't weird?" Artemis asked, raising an eyebrow.

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

"Camp." Nico answered.

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

"Why would you say that, seaweed brain?" Annabeth asked.

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

Everybody groaned.

"What! I didn't know who they were let alone they existed!" I said.

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in **_**me.**_**"**

**"I meant **_**you, **_**like 'someone.' Not you, **_**you.**_**"**

Everybody stared at the book in confusion, having gotten lost during that.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

Everyone tensed, wondering what that was.

**"What was that?" I asked.**

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.**

Nico started to laugh, despite the tense moment. "Even your mom ignores you!" He said.

**"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where **_**there **_**was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

Kind of like what everybody was doing now.

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodd's and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really **_**hadn't **_**been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

"No! Really?" Dionysus said, earning a glare from everybody.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling **_**boom! **_**and our car exploded.**

Everybody stared at Zeus suspiciously.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay..."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning. That was the only explanation. **

Everybody glared at Zeus while Poseidon was glaring at him the way I did when I remembered how Smelly Gabe had hit my mom and I felt flattered that he actually cared about me to be able to make that glare.

**We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

Everybody was worried about Grover.

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

Everybody laughed and said 'Awwwww!' but it was still tense.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

Everybody relaxed and laughed.

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

"Is that-?" Nico asked but stopped in the middle of his sentence, not wanting to know the answer.

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

_**"What?"**_

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

Thalia sighed; she had once been that tree.

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

"She can't, mortals can't cross the property line." Athena stated.

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You **_**are **_**coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he **_**couldn't **_**be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

Everybody gasped, realizing who it was.

**"He doesn't want **_**us**_**," my mother told me. "He wants **_**you. **_**Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

"She knows a lot for a human." Demeter stated, absentmindedly.

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat,** **at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

"That's because he's half bull." Persephone stated.

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

Grover groaned again, because of him they probably weren't going to make it.

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

Grover looked down sadly and Percy rested his hand on Grover's shoulder.

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of **_**Muscle Man **_**magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under wear—** **I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—**

Everybody laughed but they had an edge to them.

**which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

I shivered, remembering that night.

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.**

"She does know a lot for a human." Athena stated.

**"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min—"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

Everybody nodded in agreement to Athena's comment before, impressed by how much she knew.

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

Everybody was on the edge of their seats now.

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

"He can't see or hear well so he relies on his sense of smell." Annabeth explained.

"I know, my mom told me." I stated.

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

"Oh." Annabeth answered, nodding.

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

_**Not a scratch, **_**I remembered Gabe saying.**

**Oops.**

Everybody laughed.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

Everybody stared at the book, impressed by how much my mom knew.

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

"Keeping you near her? But she didn't." Nico stated.

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

Everybody tensed.

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

Grover sighed, "You should've just left me."

"What good would that do?" I asked him.

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance.**

I sighed, I wish I could've brought her with me but I knew she couldn't cross the boundary line.

**I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest. **

Everybody was sitting on the edge of their seats now.

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.**

"Good that you figured that out." Thalia said and I nodded.

**So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

Everybody gasped loudly, even Dionysus and Hades. They were all worried about my mom and Grover.

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

"Was nobody awake?" Zeus asked, exasperated.

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

Everybody was as tense as they could be.

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

"No!" everybody in the room yelled.

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash and she was simply...gone.**

Everybody was staring at the book, shocked at what just happened.

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodd's grew talons.**

I sighed, I wished that surge of energy would've came sooner.

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

Everybody sighed, even though most of them barely knew Percy they knew he would do anything to save his friends, and the people that knew Percy knew that he'd be desperate for any ideas to save Grover and they would probably be stupid ones.

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

Nico groaned, "Please tell me you're not doing what you think you're doing."

"I'm not doing what you think I'm doing." I stated, embarrassed.

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

Everybody looked at me, astonished, "I don't think I've ever heard someone call the Minotaur, ground beef." Hades said, shocked. I looked down and gestured for Hermes to keep reading.

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.**

"That's the spirit!" Apollo exclaimed, trying to lighten the mood of the place. It didn't work.

**I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

"Not going to happen." Annabeth stated and I ignored her.

**But it didn't happen like that.**

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

Everybody was worried and were wondering what was going to happen.

**Time slowed down.**

Thalia, Nico, and I shivered. That reminded us of Kronos way too much.

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

"How did you do that?" Nico asked and I shrugged.

**How did I do that?**

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

Thalia winced.

"Sorry." I said to her.

"It's okay you had to do what you had to do." She stated, sighing.

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong.**

Everybody glared at Zeus and he shifted uncomfortably.

**The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

"Good thing that he did or you would've already died." Nico said and I nodded.

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

I shivered, that would've really hurt.

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

Grover groaned.

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light,**

Everybody looked down sadly and sighed except for Nico and Thalia who just stared at me confused. They had seen my mom perfectly alive in the future and didn't get how she was since they read that. I just shook my head at them and gestured for Hermes to keep reading.

**and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—**_**snap!**_

Everybody looked astonished, "You ripped his horn off?" Nico asked me and I shrugged. Everybody stared at me a little longer and then they got back to the book.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

"You used his own horn against him?" Thalia asked and I nodded.

"Nice!" Nico exclaimed, high-fiving me.

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodd's had burst apart.**

Nico noticed that he didn't also state the same thing for his mother and his mothers disappearing act was different from theirs. In other words his mother was transported away before she could die.

**The monster was gone.**

Everyone was shocked.

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

Everyone smiled but, surprisingly, nobody picked on me.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

Nico and Thalia burst out laughing and I blushed brick red with embarrassment.

"Pretty girl with hair curled like a princess's?" Thalia stated between laughs. They kept laughing at me. I started to get tired of them and my anger grew. I whistled and the next thing everyone knew a hellhound appeared out of a shadow and jumped on them, pushing them to the ground. Everybody stood up shocked and worried while I just laughed. After awhile I whistled and Mrs. O'Leary got off of them, came over to me, and sat down. Thalia and Nico stood up and then they burst out laughing. After a while they came and sat next to me.

"Using Mrs. O'Leary against us Percy?" Thalia asked when she could talk again.

"Yes." I said, petting Mrs. O'Leary.

"Nice!" Nico said, still laughing.

"Wait, you can control a hellhound?" Hades asked, shocked.

"Well, she is my pet, so I can." I said, still petting her. Everybody looked at us shocked. I turned to Nico and Thalia.

"Next time it'll be Blackjack." I warned. Thalia and Nico looked scared and gestured for Hermes to continue. He looked ready to argue but chose against it and continued to read.

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"Wait it was me?" Annabeth asked, thinking about who I called a pretty girl with princess hair. I nodded and looked at Nico and Thalia to see them laughing.

"And I meant it about calling Blackjack." I stated to them. They stopped laughing immediantly and stared at me wide-eyed. I smiled and turned back to everybody else.

"Who's Blackjack?" Apollo asked.

"Percy's Pegasus." Thalia stated and he nodded, now understanding.

"That's the end of the chapter. Who wants to read next?" Hermes asked.

"Can I?" Hestia asked by the hearth and I smiled.

"Of course you can!" Hermes said, smiling and handing the book to her.

**Well there's the fourth chapter, I hope you liked it and I'll try to update again tomorrow!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Here's Chapter five, I hope you like it!  
>Disclaimer: Nope not a 30-something year old man named Rick yet, just a 14 year old girl named Lisa!<strong>

Chapter Five

"**I Play Pinochle With a Horse," **Hestia read and Chiron looked offended.

"No offense Chiron!" I exclaimed. Everybody laughed and turned back to the book.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

Everybody laughed.

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. **

"Nice way to solve your confusion." Hermes stated, chuckling.

**I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

Thalia and Nico started to say 'Awww!' but stopped when they saw me staring at them warningly.

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would over hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

"Stolen? Something was stolen?" Athena asked.

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..." **

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

Everyone chuckled at that while Nico said, "That's one way to shut you up!"

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

"Awww! Are you missing her already?" Nico asked mockingly, smiling, and I glared at him.

"Blackjack." I reminded him. He stopped smiling, turned back to Hestia, and gestured for her to continue reading.

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them- on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

"Argus." Chiron stated, smiling.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. **

"Of course, nothing is as nice as camp." Grover stated.

**I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. **

"Because of the strawberry fields of course." Dionysus reminded.

**There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

"Ouch." Demeter stated.

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

"Yummm." Apollo stated.

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.**

"Probably hasn't." Persephone stated sympathetically.

**Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

"Hey that's my nickname for Grover, not yours!" Thalia exclaimed, I just smiled.

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And...**

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

"Nice, you ruined his daydream." Nico said to Grover who smiled sheepishly.

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

"Nope but it was like one." Aphrodite stated sadly.

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

**"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"**

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

"Yup." Nico stated, accenting the p.

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really ..."**

**He looked down.**

Everyone sighed while Thalia and Nico looked deep in thought and Percy just sat there remembering how he felt during that time without his mom.

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

"Awww." All the goddess' cooed.

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm- I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

"No you're not! You should see yourself in the future, every satyr is jealous of you!" Thalia exclaimed, without thinking. Grover looked at her confused.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked.

"Ummmm, nothing, lets get back to the book now." She stated quickly. But Hestia didn't start reading again; everybody just stared at Thalia expectantly.

"Tell us what you meant by that." Zeus ordered. Thalia looked like she didn't want to explained but she sighed and surrendered.

"In the future Grover finds Pan-" She started but Grover interrupted her.

"I do?" He asked, astonished.

"Yes, you do but anyway back to the story, he finds him and…" She paused for a second and looked at Hermes sadly, "And he watches him…die." Hermes face filled with sadness and misery after Thalia said that, "But before he died he told Grover to tell all the satyrs to have hope and things would change and he resigned his job and made Grover the god of the wild." She stated and everybody stared at her shocked.

"I become god of the wild?" Grover asked, about to faint.

"Yea, and you're amazing at it! That's why every satyr is jealous of you." I stated. Everybody stared at us and Grover for awhile and then got back to the story.

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.**

**Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

"Ummm you don't have to shave my head you know." He stated apparently not liking the thought. I smiled and nodded.

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

Everybody looked down sadly again, remembering what had happened.

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?**

Everybody shivered at the thought, "That would never happen! I wouldn't allow it!" Poseidon exclaimed.

**No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.**

"So would I, I'd do anything to get away from him." Nico agreed.

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid- poor goat, satyr, whatever- looked as if he expected to be hit.**

"I probably wasn't expecting to get hit more like yelled at, but I have no clue since this is in the future for me." He explained and I nodded.

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

**"Yes, it was. I was supposed to **_**protect **_**you."**

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

"No, it's just my job." Grover stated.

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."**

Hermes chuckled, "Repeating yourself Grover?" Grover turned red in embarrassment and looked down.

**"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

**I recoiled at the taste, **

"Why? Nectar is delicious!" Nico exclaimed.

**because I was expecting apple juice. **

"Oh." Nico realized, embarrassed now.

**It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.**

**And not just any cookies- my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. **

"Mmmm…I really feel like cookies right now, I wish I had some." Apollo stated dreamily. Athena sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Apollo you do know that since you're a god you have the power to make anything you want appear right?" She asked him.

"Oh yea!" He exclaimed before making a plate of cookies appear in front of him and start eating them.

**Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

Everybody smiled sadly, remembering what happened to my mom and again they didn't tease me at all.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

"No! That's not what I meant!" Grover exclaimed, seeming very uncomfortable.

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

"Grover, you keep repeating yourself!" Apollo and Hermes exclaimed, chuckling.

"Connor and Travis are so much like Hermes it's scary, don't you think?" I whispered to Thalia and she nodded.

"Like father, like sons." She answered back, grinning.

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Home made."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

Everybody laughed at that statement.

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff."**

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

"Oh joy I come into the story now!" Dionysus stated tiredly and everyone jumped, having forgotten he was here since he was so quiet.

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

Again nobody teased me they just looked down sadly.

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

"Why?" Hermes asked.

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture- **

"Because it _is_ ancient Greek architecture." Annabeth and Athena stated.

**an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena- except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

I smiled, that was my first view of camp while Demeter stated, "No you're not hallucinating, those are Pegasus."

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

I saw Thalia and Nico trying to hold back in what they wanted to say because they knew that I wasn't joking about Blackjack. I looked around and saw that thankfully none of the Olympians noticed that. I looked at Aphrodite and realized that she was looking from me and Annabeth, with a mischievous look on her face and a dangerous glint in her eyes. With a quiet groan I put my head in my arms, realizing that Aphrodite was probably planning out my love life drama with Annabeth and everybody else right now.

"Percy you ok?" Dad asked me. I looked up to see everybody staring at me confused. _I guess the groan was louder than I thought_, I stated in my mind.

"Yea I'm fine just thinking about something from the future." I explained. Aphrodite smiled at me realizing that I knew what she was doing right now and after acouple seconds Thalia and Nico seemed to too and despite them holding trying to hold in their laughter it burst out of them. All the gods stared at them confused but continued to read.

**The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

Dionysus' face grew red in anger and embarrassment while everybody else burst out laughing.

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, **

"Thanks about the worst insult you could say to anyone." Dionysus stated, grimacing, still red from before.

**except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step father.**

"Anyone can." Poseidon stated, clenching his fists when he remembered what happened with Gabe.

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, **

Annabeth looked angry and glared at Grover, "Just a camper?" She demanded and he blushed looking down guiltily.

**but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron..."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers **_**B**_**.**

"That's awesome!" Apollo exclaimed grinning and Chiron smiled.

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

Everyone laughed at how casual Chiron was being.

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

"Wow Dionysus must have been having a great day then." Nico realized while everybody laughed at Dionysus' antics.

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, **_**if **_**there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. **

Everybody laughed while Zeus glanced warningly at Dionysus who shook his head no.

**If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

"Mr. D has never even heard of alcohol you silly satyr!" Hermes and Apollo exclaimed. Everybody laughed harder when this was said.

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

Hermes cheered of course since his camp was mentioned and everybody chuckled at him.

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

Athena and Poseidon scowled at that.

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. **

Everyone glanced between us and nodded in agreement, seeming to realize that as well.

**With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. **

"Ruined?" Athena and Annabeth demanded, glaring at me though Annabeth's was slightly softer for some reason because she didn't know our relationship yet other then us just being friends. I gulped. Hestia continued to read on to stop an argument from starting.

**They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, **

"Pretty?" Everyone asked, raising an eyebrow and I blushed deeply staring at the ground in embarrassment.

**but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

Everybody laughed, she probably was.

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, **_**You killed a minotaur! **_**or **_**Wow, you're so awesome! **_**or something like that.**

Annabeth raised her eyebrows, "Gods you have a big ego!" She exclaimed and I blushed even more, staring intently at the ground.

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

Everybody burst out laughing at that and I blushed even deeper in embarrassment.

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

"Ohhh, someone got a crush!" Aphrodite said in a sing-songy voice and I blushed even deeper at that while Athena and Poseidon glared at her. Hestia continued reading so a fight wouldn't break out.

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

Everyone chuckled at how I changed the subject.

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

Everyone was about to explain to me but I started talking before they could, "I know that names are a powerful thing and you don't just go around saying them." And they nodded, satisfied.

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. **

Everyone laughed at that.

**"Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

Hermes looked thoughtful, "You know, you and Dionysus think a like," he stated, chuckling at our identical faces of horror.

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

Everyone laughed, "Nice Chiron, you're glad he alive only because you didn't want to have wasted your time the past couple of months!" Apollo exclaimed and Chiron blushed with embarrassment and regret.

**"House call?"**

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, **

"And you are, you're a child of the big three." Athena stated and everyone nodded.

**so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

"What did you do?" Hermes asked, in disbelief, curiosity, and horror but Chiron just shrugged.

"I don't know, this hasn't happened yet." He stated.

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

"Disappeared as in no trace anywhere on earth, disappeared as in kidnapped, or disappeared as in left the class?" Apollo asked and I shrugged.

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

"You're making his ego bigger, Chiron!" Thalia exclaimed and everyone laughed while I glared at her warningly and that shut her up.

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first.**

"Neither were we!" Nico said, laughing with everybody else and I glared at him too.

**We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

Thalia chuckled, "I failed that test!"

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

Everyone laughed, remembering my description for Mr. D.

**"You **_**do **_**know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

"I'm pretty sure only Chiron and you do at camp." Apollo stated.

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, **_**sir**_**," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

Hermes chuckled, "We all do!" Earning a glare from said person.

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, **

"Pac-man?" Apollo wondered and Dionysus nodded.

"It's one of the greatest games ever invented by humans." He explained.

**one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. **

"Stop repeating yourself Dionysus!" Hermes exclaimed, chuckling.

**I would expect all **_**civilized **_**young men to know the rules."**

"Then I guess all young men are wild beasts since they don't know how to." Ares joked and Artemis nodded, taking him seriously which earned her a glare from Nico and I.

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun-Chiron…why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

Everyone laughed at that.

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

Ares chuckled, "You're a little more scared then you should be." He stated, making Grover blush.

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, **_**I **_**was his star student. He expected **_**me **_**to have the right answer.**

"He smiles at everybody that way." Hestia stated.

"That's because they all are." Chiron explained.

"Actually in the future Percy is your number one favorite and we're all second." Nico stated and Thalia nodded in agreement while I blushed, "Even though you don't say it we all know it."

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea.**

Dad sighed sadly, looking down at that.

**"She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

Everyone looked down sadly at that.

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. **

He was now getting glared at by everybody in the room and he actually looked down, ashamed.

**Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

**"What?" I asked.**

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

"You didn't get to see the film?" Nico asked and I nodded, "To bad, it was great!"

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. **

Apollo mockingly gasped, "He is?" and everybody rolled their eyes.

**You know-" he pointed to the horn in the shoe box- "that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. **

Annabeth sighed, "You're just making his ego bigger Chiron!" She exclaimed making everybody laugh while I blushed.

**What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods- the forces you call the Greek gods- are very much alive."**

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, **_**Not!**_

"Not!" Apollo yelled and everybody rolled their eyes at that.

**But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

Everyone laughed at that while Annabeth stated, "Oh Grover…" while Grover was blushing in embarrassment.

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

"How kind of you Dionysus!" Apollo joked.

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

"How can you chew mournfully?" Hermes asked and Grover shrugged.

"You just can." He stated.

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as god."**

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God- capital **_**G**_**, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

"Metaphysical?" Ares asked, not knowing what it meant.

"A branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world." She stated and he still looked confused.

"A part of science about how everything came to be." I stated and he nodded, understanding now, while Athena and Annabeth started at me in shock, "What? I'm not dumb you know!" I added, making them blush in embarrassment.

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"Smaller?" Hephaestus asked raising an eyebrow, making us all jump since he had been so quiet we had forgotten he was here.

**"Smaller?"**

"Seems like Percy and Hephaestus think alike!" Hermes exclaimed, chuckling.

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

"Funny how he states me but not his own father." Zeus exclaimed earning a glare from dad.

**And there it was again-distant thunder on a cloud less day.**

"Someone's mad for some reason I want to know." Thalia stated and everybody nodded in agreement while I just grinned since I was the only one that knew.

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

"Yes, but you're not." Hermes stated, earning a glare from Dionysus.

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're- myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

Apollo groaned, "Great here goes Dionysus going on about science!" earning a glare from him.

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson**

"Your real names Perseus?" Zeus asked and I nodded.

"Mom wanted me to be as lucky as him so she named me after him." I explained.

"And are you?" Hera asked and I shrugged.

"Luckwise, no, but since I'm still alive then I'm lucky enough." I stated.

**"-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody- "what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. **

Everyone laughed at that.

**That's what. Oh, I love mortals- **

All the gods nodded in agreement.

**they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come **_**so-o-o **_**far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

He was now getting glare at by Annabeth, Nico, Thalia, and I since we were raised in the mortal world.

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, **

"Most people don't." Hermes stated earning a glare from him.

**but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't. **

"He isn't." Hephaestus stated.

**It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

"No you don't have to be afraid of Dionysus, he won't hurt you because if he did then he would have to deal with a murderous Poseidon and I know he doesn't want that." Athena stated and everyone nodded while Dionysus glared at her.

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that **_**immortal **_**means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

"It's awesome!" Apollo exclaimed and the gods nodded in agreement.

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, **

"Seems like you change your mind." Nico stated and I nodded which seemed to confuse everybody else, except for Thalia.

"What?" Hera asked.

"Nothing!" Us three exclaimed and they all raised their eyebrows but didn't question us any further.

**but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

"Exactly." Chiron agreed.

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. **

"Stop repeating yourself Chiron!" Apollo exclaimed and we all rolled our eyes at his antics.

**"If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? **

"It's not fun." The gods grumbled.

**What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that some day people would call **_**you **_**a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

Everybody winced and dad glared at Chiron who was looking down at the ground in regret and shame, "That was a cruel thing Chiron." Dad reprimanded.

"I know." He stated.

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

"Anyone tries to incinerate him and I'll incinerate _you_." Dad warned, giving all the gods his death glare which was just like mine.

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

"Yes Dionysus, a little sympathy would be nice." Dad snapped giving him his deluxe I'll-kill-you-later glare which made Dionysus go pale and shrink down in his throne.

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"**

"You were the one who chased the off-limits wood nymph." Zeus stated.

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

He was now being glared at by Zeus.

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

Everyone rolled their eyes at that.

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

"Sure you are." Zeus grumbled.

**More thunder.**

"Seems like future you agrees." Apollo chuckled, still fascinated about this book being from the future.

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

"Your fault." Zeus reminded and Dionysus nodded.

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

Zeus opened his mouth but everyone stated, "We know it was his own fault!" and that shut him up.

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

Everyone laughed at that.

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. **

"No I don't." Zeus stated, offended, and everyone raised an eyebrow at him but he stubbornly said, "I don't!"

**The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! **

"Off course it is for the god of wine but mines worse." Nico muttered and luckily nobody else heard him other than Thalia and I.

"Yea when you get in trouble you get grounded to the underworld." I stated and he nodded while Thalia and I shivered at that thought.

**The second time- well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away- **

"You should've." Zeus grumbled, glaring at him.

**the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. **

"Hey our children aren't brats." All the Olympians with demi-god children yelled.

**'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' **

"Ha, like that's going to happen." Nico snorted and we nodded in agreement.

**Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

"For us." Thalia grumbled and luckily Dionysus didn't here but everybody else did and laughed at that to Dionysus' confusion.

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

Everyone laughed at that whole I was getting glared at by said 'six year old pouting child'.

**"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."**

Annabeth groaned, "Are you really this slow?" She asked and I blushed in embarrassment as everybody else laughed.

_**"Di immortales, **_**Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

"He did he just doesn't know who you are." Hestia stated.

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

"Connecting all the dots." Athena approved.

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

"Finally!" Everyone exclaimed while I blushed in embarrassment.

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

"Yes they do but it sounds weird coming from you." Apollo admitted earning himself a glare from said weirdo.

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

"You're just too scared Grover, I mean he's not that scary!" Ares exclaimed earning a glare from Dionysus which made him trembled and say, "Though he is scary."

**"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

"Hey I take offense to that!" Aphrodite stated, offended while everybody chuckled.

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

"It was hard for us to believe it at first too." Apollo and Hermes exclaimed, laughing with everybody else while Dionysus glared at everybody in the room.

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man **

Everyone laughed even harder, remembering my description of him.

**was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

"You do that Dionysus and trust me…" Dad trailed off, leaving the threat there while glaring at Dionysus, making him terrified of dad.

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

Dad glared at Dionysus again.

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

"You did?" Hermes exclaimed, shocked since Dionysus never won.

"Chiron hasn't tallied his points yet." Athena reminded and Hermes nodded in remembrance.

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

"See?" Athena asked and Hermes nodded while Dionysus grumbled something about never winning and Chiron cheating.

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. **

"He is." Apollo stated.

**He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, **_**again, **_**about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

"Don't be too harsh on him Dionysus." Hestia begged and he nodded since nobody liked to be mean to Hestia or tell her no.

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

Nico snorted, "Like that's going to work." He said, chuckling.

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

"Poor Grover…" Persephone stated sadly and we all jumped forgetting she was here since she was so quiet.

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

"He will be." Annabeth stated, determined, staring at Grover who was staring sadly at the ground.

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

"Camps not that bad." Hermes stated and then turned thoughtful, "You know what? I think you secretly like camp and all the campers you just hate being grounded there and on probation." At that Dionysus glared at him.

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

"Well on Mount Olympus there used to be but now there isn't." Athena explained.

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

"Yup, I've move to many times in my life to count." Apollo stated like he was a kid whose parents always moved.

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in **_**America**_**?"**

"Yup, 600th floor of the Empire State Building." Annabeth stated.

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

**"The what?"**

"Western civilization of course!" Hera exclaimed.

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. **

"Wait but gods still fade." Nico stated, confused.

"Yes but it's usually when the thing they are god of is not around much anymore or is extremely harmed till it's almost gone that they fade." Athena explained and Nico nodded, understanding now.

**The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know- or as I hope you know, since you passed my course- **

"Yay! You passed." Aphrodite exclaimed, making everybody jump since they had forgotten she was here.

**the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps- Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on- but the same forces, the same gods."**

"Yup." Apollo stated, "But for Greek and Roman I never changed." He added proudly.

**"And then they died."**

"What don't you get about immortal?" Athena asked and I blushed in embarrassment.

**"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture.**

Annabeth smiled, remembering her dream of becoming an architect.

**People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. **

Zeus looked smug at that.

**Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not- and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either- **

Ares frowned, "Rome wasn't that bad they had great strategies in war so they conquered a lot, that's just what they were like, war isn't that bad anyway." He huffed, folding his arms.

"For the god of war it isn't but for us it is." Nico muttered and luckily Ares didn't here him.

**America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

"He makes it sound like we are part of some honorary club of people who believe in mythology." Hermes examined.

**It was all too much, especially the fact that **_**I **_**seemed to be included in Chiron's **_**we, **_**as if I were part of some club.**

Apollo chuckled, "It seems like Hermes and Percy think alike!" while everybody rolled their eyes.

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

"How dramatic!" Hermes exclaimed, laughing.

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. **

"Actually he isn't." Ares stated and I rolled my eyes.

"I know that now." I grumbled.

**He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

"Not quite." Hermes stated, chuckling.

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to 'meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be smores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

"oh we know you do Chiron." Hermes stated, remembering all the times he had popped down to the big house to deliver something and seeing Chiron eating chocolate.

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, **

Everyone laughed at that picture.

**but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. **

"Of course, you know I've always wondered how it works…" Hephaestus stated, trailing off at the end, wondering.

**A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

"You know that must be a creepy thing to see." Hermes stated thoughtfully and I nodded in agreement.

"It is." I agreed.

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

"Of course, I am a centaur after all." Chiron reminded.

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. **

"Nice to know!" Apollo exclaimed, laughing with Hermes.

**Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

"Yea more campers to meet!" Apollo exclaimed.

"Well that's the end of the chapter." Hestia said sweetly.

"I think we should go eat dinner, don't you?" Hermes asked and everyone sighed but nodded. When we got to the dinning room we did the same thing we did at lunch –thankfully nobody noticing Nico sacrificing to Hades- and this time Aphrodite didn't come to talk to me, Annabeth did.

"Hi." She stated and I smiled at her.

"Ummm…Hi." I stated awkwardly.

"Are we really friends in the future?" She asked and I smiled.

"The best of friends." I said, _were even more that friends, we're dating and are completely in love,_ I thought to myself.

"When did we start to be friends?" She asked and I was thought for a second before answering.

"We started to be friends during this book we're reading." I answered truthfully and she nodded.

"So we've been friends for years?" She asked and I nodded, "This must be weird for you since you say we are best friends in the future but I don't even know you and I'm younger than the Annabeth you know." She added and I nodded.

"It is a little." I admitted, "But I'm ok with it." I added and she nodded, smiling at me.

"I can see why we're friends; you sound like a great person to have as a friend." She stated and I blushed at the comment.

"Thanks." I said. I looked up at her and I accidently locked eyes with her and I couldn't look away and neither could she. After acouple minutes it dawned on me that others may suspect my feelings for her, as well as she might notice, so with a lot of strength I looked away from her eyes to see that, fortunately, nobody noticed except for Nico, Thalia, and Aphrodite but I was fine with them seeing since they already knew that we were dating in the future.

"Well…ummm…" She stated, clearly confused and mystified by our moment of staring, "I'm going to go talk to Grover, see you later." She stated nicely and I nodded at her, smiling.

"See you later." I agreed. She smiled back at me, got up, and went over to talk to Grover while I continued eating. When everybody was done we all got up and walked back to the throne room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, here's the next chapter, I hope you like it! This chapter doesn't have them actually reading the story it's just an extra chapter I put in here and you'll see why when you start reading it.  
>Disclaimer:…still fourteen year old girl…<strong>

Chapter six

We were just about to get started on the next chapter when suddenly we saw a flash above us and when we looked up we saw a girl falling through the air towards us. Everyone was confused on whom it was but I knew, it was Annabeth. She came falling towards us blindingly fast, screaming and I jumped up, ready to catch her since I was in the place she would land on. She kept getting closer and her screaming got louder. Suddenly she fell into my arms and I cradled her. She stopped screaming and immediately climbed out of my arms, fixing her clothes and hair which were messed up from the fall but she still looked like my beautiful Annabeth as always.

"Sorry I fell and you had to catch me I-" She stopped talking and froze when she looked up and saw it was me, "Percy?" She asked hesitantly and I smiled.

"Hey wise girl," I said, "Annabeth are you all right?" I asked, worried when she stayed frozen. She didn't answer me and her eyes filled with tears, "Annabeth?" I asked completely worried now. Suddenly she jumped at me, hugged me, and kissed me passionately on the mouth, more than she ever had right in front of the Olympians, Chiron, her and Grover's past self, Nico, and Thalia. Everyone from the past gasped, especially past Annabeth, Athena and dad, while Nico and Thalia smiled and Aphrodite squealed and clapped her hands together while she was jumping up and down with joy. I was shocked that she had kissed me in front of everybody but I didn't care because right as her lips touched mine everything else went away. I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her back just as passionately. Acouple of minutes later we pulled back to get some air and she hugged me tightly.

"Ummm…Annabeth you do know that you just kissed me in front of everybody, right?" I asked.

"I don't care! I missed you so much Percy!" She exclaimed between tears. I pulled back from her hug and stared at her confused.

"What do you mean?" I asked, "We've only been gone for a couple hours." I stated. She stepped back a step.

"We?" She inquired.

"Yea Nico, Thalia, and I were brought back to the past to read the books of my quests." I explained.

"Wait Thalia and Nico?" She repeated and I nodded. She looked and saw them behind me. She looked completely confused but turned back to me her eyes bloodshot and her face all red.

"Percy, what was the month you were in and how old are you before you came here?" She asked. I stared at her confused but answered.

"It was November and I am 16." I answered. She looked shocked at first but suddenly her expression turned miserable.

"So you're a month behind me because I'm from December when you're 16." She said sadly her eyes filling with tears.

"Annabeth what's wrong?" I asked, completely confused and worried at her sadness. She looked down.

"I can't tell you because it hasn't happened in your time yet." She stated with a heavy heart. It hurt me to see her like this so I hugged her tightly and she returned it. Suddenly more flashes happened above us and five people fell out of the sky down towards us. Annabeth pulled away and looked up alarmed.

"Guys watch out!" She yelled as loud as she could. They looked down and saw her, "Ummm…" She tried to think of a way to save them. Suddenly an idea came to her mind, "Piper grab onto Leo's neck!" She yelled and a girl with red hair grabbed onto a scrawny boy with black hair, "Jason grab onto Connor and Travis' shirt collars," she screamed and a boy with blond hair grabbed onto the Stoll's shirts, "Now Leo put your hands face down and use your powers to bring you down slowly and Jason use your powers to bring you down slowly!" She yelled then she turned to us.

"I'd cover your mouth because in a couple seconds there is going to be a lot of smoke in this room." Immediately everybody on the ground covered their mouth. Suddenly red hot fire shot out of the boy that Annabeth called Leo's hands and a second later it hit the ground. He levitated for a second and then he slowly came down to the ground. The other boy apparently called Jason seemed to slow down too but I couldn't see how he did it. About five minutes later they reached the ground. The fire stopped and the smoke shockingly disappeared immediately and standing in the middle of the gods and us were five kids, four boys and one girl. Annabeth ran up to them.

"Are you guys all ok?" She asked worriedly and they all nodded. The boys named Leo and Jason started to waver in their steps and Annabeth caught Jason while the girl Annabeth called Piper caught Leo. They lowered them to the ground and then let go.

"You guys should rest, you used your powers a lot." Piper stated in a caring voice and I immediately knew that she was nice. They nodded but the boy named Jason looked around.

"Wait we're missing someone-" He was interrupted when another flash happened above us and a girl that I recognized as Rachel fell through the sky. Everyone started to panic because Jason and Leo were too tired and worn out to help and if I called Blackjack he wouldn't be here in time since he can't shadow travel here like Mrs. O'Leary can. Everyone looked around and couldn't see a way to help her. Suddenly Apollo sprung up from his throne and turned to Hermes.

"Give me a pair of your flying shoes!" He demanded.

"But-" Hermes protested but was interrupted.

"Just do it!" He barked urgently. Hermes reached into his bag, grabbed a pair of flying shoes, and gave them to Apollo who put them on.

"Now what's the magic word?" He asked but Hermes hesitated, "What the magic word Hermes!"

"Maia!" Hermes yelled, scared and worried at how Apollo was acting. _He wants to save her, she is his new oracle after all though he doesn't know that but he probably has an instinct telling him to save her, _I thought.

"Maia!" Apollo exclaimed and he shot fast into the air towards Rachel. He reached her in acouple seconds and surprisingly she wasn't screaming at all, in fact I don't think she screamed at all during the whole fall before that! He cradled her to his chest and came down to the ground. He reached us about a minute later and set her on the ground.

"You ok?" He asked, worried and she nodded, bowing to him.

"Thank you Lord Apollo." She thanked. He smiled but looked confused on why he saved her.

"Welcome." He stated and went to go sit in his throne while all the gods and goddess' stared at him in shock and confusion.

"Apollo why'd you do that?" Hermes asked, still freaked out from Apollo's demanding. Apollo just shrugged.

"I have no clue I just followed my instincts and they told me to save her." He explained.

"He saved her," Annabeth started and all the past people looked at her, "Because she is his new oracle." She finished and everyone looked at Rachel in shock and awe.

"What? It's not like I'm-" She stopped and gasped, seeing Percy, "P-percy?" She asked in disbelief. I smiled.

"Hey Rachel." I stated, suddenly she ran forward and hugged me tightly.

"Percy, it's so great to see you, I thought you were gone!" She exclaimed.

"Good to see you too Rachel but-" I was about to ask where she thought I went when I suddenly heard two boys say, "Percy!" I looked over as Rachel pulled away and saw Connor and Travis Stoll grinning at me. They walked forward and hugged me, while patting me on the back.

"We've missed you; camp just hasn't been the same!" They exclaimed, grinning at me.

"Ummm…where was I exactly?" I asked.

"You were at-" They started but Annabeth covered their mouths before they could finish.

"Guys this is Percy from November, a month before our time so don't tell him the future, who knows how he'll react." She explained.

"Oh…but it's still Percy!" They exclaimed grinning at me and I smiled back, still confused though.

"Hey Stoll's, how are you?" Thalia stated. They looked over and grinned.

"Pinecone face! It's good to see you!" They exclaimed, hugging her, "And you to death breath!" They stated, seeing Nico and gave him the same hug as they gave me.

"Wait…death breath?" Zeus inquired and I looked at Thalia and Nico in panic.

"Ummm…oh what's the use!" Nico exclaimed. Sighing he turned to face them, "Yes death breath is what people call me and they call me that because…" He sighed and continued, "Because I am a son of Hades." Everyone from the past gasped but before Zeus stood up Persephone said:

"Wait...I remember a boy named Nico Di Angelo from about 60 years ago that was my husbands son but he suddenly disappeared during W.." She remembered and he smiled.

"That's me!" He stated, but continued seeing everybody's confused looks, "During world war 2 father put my sister," His voice broke on that but fortunately none of the gods noticed and he continued, "And I in the Lotus Hotel and Casino for about 60 years until Alecto took us out." He finished and everyone seemed to nod, still a little shocked.

"Wait so you're from November?" Connor asked and I nodded. He sighed sadly and looked at Annabeth sympathetically who grabbed onto my hand.

"It may not be the Percy from my month but it still is Percy and that's good enough for me." She stated confidently and hugged me tightly, resting her head on my shoulder, and I hugged her back.

"Wait...so you to are...dating?" Dad asked. We blushed but nodded and they gasped even louder, now that it was being confirmed.

"Who would've thought that you would date a son of Poseidon when you got older Annabeth." Grover stated to the younger Annabeth. Annabeth looked over to the Grover and locked eyes with the past Annabeth who looked completely shocked. My Annabeth blushed and buried her head into my chest whispering, "I missed you seaweed brain." I smiled and hugged her tighter, whispering, "I missed you too and I love you." in her ear. She smiled and whispered, "I love you too." Our conversation was unnoticed by everyone except for Aphrodite, unfortunately.

"Awwww!" She said, crying and dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, "This is so sweet!" We blushed harder but didn't let go of each other. Suddenly Thalia gasped and the next second I knew she was running across the room and jumped onto the boy that Annabeth called Jason, Screaming, "JASON!"

"Umm, Thalia? Can't. Breathe!" He stated. She pulled away, blushing and…crying? What? But Thalia never cries!

"J-jason, is that r-really you?" She asked and he smiled at her.

"Yea it's me." He answered.

"I-I thought you were d-d-dead, m-mom said you w-were!" She exclaimed, hugging him again but not as tight as before.

"Well I'm not." He stated. I looked over at the gods since they had been unusually quiet to see them staring at Jason in horror.

"What?" I asked them but they didn't answer me, "Dad what's wrong?" I asked, he looked at me but seemed to be speechless. Jason seemed to finally realize their stares and paled.

"Uh-oh." He muttered, as if he were in trouble. Suddenly a light appeared in the middle of the room right as Zeus was about to say something and when it disappeared there was another note sitting there like from the start. Past Annabeth got up, picked up the note, and read:

_I know you are all wondering what is going on and it will be explained in due time but that will be later. I have sent Annabeth, Jason, Leo, Piper, Rachel, Connor, and Travis from the future to read the books also since they probably want to hear the adventures from Percy's point of view or actually want to know about them since no one's told them. Before you start reading the next chapter I want them to introduce themselves so you'll understand who they are and then explain to them what has happened so far so they'll understand what's going on then you can continue reading. Also, absolutely __**no**__ arguments are allowed during it them introducing themselves, ok? Good. I hope you enjoy the rest of the stories._

_-Rhea_

"Well I guess we'll introduce ourselves." My Annabeth said, "I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"I'm Connor Stoll and this is my twin brother Travis and we are sons of Hermes." Connor stated pointing to Travis and himself.

"I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare, mortal, and oracle of Delphi." She introduced.

"Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus." He stated and everybody was shocked because he didn't look anything like a child of Hephaestus looks like.

"Piper Mclean, daughter of Aphrodite." She said and we were shocked because even though she had the looks of a child of Aphrodite she didn't have the clothes and she had no make-up. Lastly there was the Jason guy and everybody was silent.

"Ummm…I'm Jason…Grace…" He took a deep breath and continued, "Son of…Jupiter." And all the past kids including my time and myself gasped and the gods looked at him, unsure of what to do.

"Wait…don't you mean Zeus?" Nico asked but Jason shook his head.

"No, Jupiter." He repeated.

"Wait so you're a…roman demi-god?" I asked and he nodded, "I kind of guessed we weren't the only kind of demi-gods." I added thoughtfully.

"So why haven't we seen any around the place?" Nico asked and Jason looked uncomfortable.

"Well…you have…it's just the mist…changed everything when we saw each other." He stated, rubbing his neck uncomfortably.

"Oh I guess that would make sense, I mean who knows what would happen if we had noticed each other before." I stated and shivered at the idea of a war against the roman demi-gods and Jason did too.

"Yea that wouldn't be good, but we're still coming together, I guess it's what the fates want." He stated and I was completely confused.

"Wait are you saying our groups are going to war against each other?" I asked in fear.

"No! No that's not what I'm saying but gods that would be bad. I mean so many demi-gods would die not to mention humans as well! I was saying that we are…banding together somewhat since we're still getting there we just have to see what the rest of the Roman demi-gods think since you Greeks are alright with it." He stated.

"Can't you just ask them? I mean as a son of Jupiter you must be high up in the rankings." I stated and he looked sad.

"Well the truth is I don't even remember what's its like at my camp or how my life was like." He stated truthfully.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well the person who was trying to band us together came up with a plan to do it and their plan was…" He stopped, took a deep breath, and continued, "To take me out of the Roman camp, erase my memory, and put me in the Greek camp but as the final part of the plan they…they took…you out of the Greek camp, erased your memory, and put you in the Roman camp and…you haven't been seen since." He stated uncomfortably while everybody who was here before Annabeth and everybody came gasped.

"So that's why everybody kept saying I was gone." I realized and he nodded. I looked down at Annabeth and saw that she was crying so I hugged her tightly saying, "I'm sorry I left you." In her ear and she whispered back, "It wasn't your fault you were chosen, you're the leader of camp half-blood so you had to." She stated hugging me back just as tight.

"Ummm…so since we introduced ourselves can you explain what's happened so far?" Leo asked and everybody nodded after a second. After we were done explaining it to them Leo, Jason, and Piper were shocked while everybody else already knew the story and were fine.

"Ummm…I'll read if you don't mind." Annabeth stated. Everybody nodded and she picked up the book, opened to the right chapter and began.

**I hoped you liked it and all the characters I brought! I'll update again tomorrow!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I know, I know, I said in the last chapter that I'd update the next day but I didn't. I am soooo extremely sorry I haven't updated this story in around four months, I sadly forgot about it because all my focus was one another story and I kept getting new ideas for stories and went into a superhero phase(that I'm still in) so Percy Jackson was pushed to the side. Then I went on a vacation for two and a half weeks in Canada and right as I got back school started(literally, I got home during second period of the first day and made it to school by the end of third period) and I just started high school three weeks ago(as a freshmen) so I've been busy with that and getting my online class ready which will bring my updates down even **_**more. **_**And then when I tried to update this chapter for some reason I could get to publish which I found out was because some safety thing on my computer was prohibiting it or something so I just had to allow it to let me get on it and I was able to after it, so let's just say that I felt like a complete idiot after it. Lastly even though I won't update a lot I'll try my best, but here's the next chapter and I hope you like it and please forgive me.  
>Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or bolded words!<strong>

Chapter seven

**"I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom," **Annabeth read and started laughing as did everybody who knew what was going to happen while everyone else just raised an eyebrow at the title.

**Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse,**

Everyone laughed at that.

**we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.**

Everyone laughed at that while Chiron looked offended.

"Sorry Chiron." I stated. He still looked a little affronted but accepted my apology.

**We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's **_**him**_**."**

"Great they're making his ego even bigger." Thalia muttered and everyone laughed at that while I glared at her.

**Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. **

Everyone looked a little disgusted at that, "Ok didn't need to know that." Apollo stated.

**I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. **

"Of course you are modest after all." Rachel stated, and everyone from the future and my time nodded in agreement while I blushed.

**I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.**

"Probably did." Connor, Travis, and Hermes stated in unison, chuckling, then looked at each other in shock while we all laughed at them.

"Like father, like sons." Nico stated and everyone nodded in agreement.

**I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. **

"Do you always compare everything to something having to do with the beach or ocean?" Aphrodite asked and I shrugged.

"Pretty much." I stated.

**I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

"The oracle." Everyone except for Leo, Piper, and Jason stated and those three looked confused.

"That was Rachel?" Leo asked but we shook our heads.

"No this is before Rachel became the oracle so it would be the mummy of the oracles past host since she hadn't changed for decades." My Annabeth explained and they nodded, now understanding but looked a little freaked out.

**"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.**

**He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."**

"Lying Chiron?" Connor asked, raising an eyebrow.

**"Somebody lives there?"**

**"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."**

"True enough." Travis stated thoughtfully and Nico mocked gasped.

"Travis Stoll is…thinking?" Everyone laughed at that while Travis glared at Nico but his lips twitched towards a smile.

**I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.**

"Of course, but it wasn't alive, it was dead." Ares stated.

**"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

"You need to work on your subject change Chiron." Hermes stated and Travis and Connor nodded in agreement.

**We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries **

"Dionysus and Demeter cabin." Travis stated dreamily and the gods and everyone else from the past looked confused while everybody else snickered.

"Dude, stop dreaming about Gardener!" Nico exclaimed which took Travis out of his day dreaming and he blushed crimson while the gods and everybody from the past looked confused as the rest of us laughed harder.

"Gardener?" Athena asked.

"Katie Gardener, daughter of Demeter and the crush of Travis Stoll's since he first met her as well as his sworn enemy." Connor explained making Travis blush harder and Aphrodite squeal in excitement. He then added, "They have the kind of love/hate relationship." Since everyone looked confused at the sworn enemy but weren't anymore.

"Ohhh another couple!" Aphrodite screamed but everybody ignored her.

"Why do they hate each other?" Hera wondered.

"Travis plays pranks on her and her cabin to get her attention so they are sworn enemies." Leo explained and the gods nodded, now understanding.

**while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.**

I smiled because that reminded me of Grover.

"How is Grover doing?" I asked Annabeth and she smiled.

"He's doing great on his job." She answered, smiling.

**Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."**

"Of course they do, they are grown by my and Dionysus' children." Demeter stated proudly and Dionysus nodded in agreement.

**He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

"Of course, it is wine after all." Zeus stated while Dionysus pouted in his chair.

**I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. **

"You know it's really amazing how satyr magic works." Hestia said absentmindedly and everyone nodded in agreement.

**I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music.**

"I can't." Grover stated sadly and I nodded.

"I know." I said sympathetically.

**I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.**

Demeter sighed and glared at Dionysus saying, "Probably was." Dionysus just shrugged.

**"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."**

"You're a good friend." Hestia stated while Grover and I blushed and I muttered, "Thanks."

**Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable.**

"Sorry." Chiron apologized to Grover but he just shrugged.

"It's ok." He accepted.

**To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."**

"But he did that." Leo exclaimed.

"I might agree with you," Athena said, "But it's not his place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there was the unfortunate fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part." She explained and everyone nodded while Percy looked shocked and kind of freaked out.

"What's wrong Percy?" My Annabeth asked and I sighed.

"Read the next line and a paragraph and you'll see." He ordered. Everyone looked confused but went back to the book.

**"But he did that!"**

"Apparently you and Leo think alike Percy." Nico teased, chuckling while Leo and I just ignored him.

**"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."**

"Ok I see why you acted like that before Percy." Dad stated and everyone nodded, shocked and freaked out like I was before.

**I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.**

"There is no point wishing you could change the past because the past is set in stone, all you can do is live in the present and work for a better future." Surprisingly, and shockingly, Travis and Connor stated in unison and everyone stared at them in shock, "What? We can be smart you know! We're not dumb!"

**"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"**

Everyone sighed sadly, looking down, except for Leo, Jason, and Piper who looked confused but didn't comment.

**Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that **_**was **_**Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age..."**

"How old are you?" Leo wondered.

"It'll probably be said in the next line." Grover guessed.

**"How old is he?"**

"Oh ok." Leo said.

**"Oh, twenty-eight."**

"Twenty-eight? You're twenty-eight?" Nico exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well actually I'm twenty-six right now." He corrected but everybody was still shocked.

**"What! And he's in sixth grade?"**

**"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."**

"That's horrible." Thalia said and Grover nodded, grimacing.

**"That's horrible."**

"Apparently Percy and Thalia think alike." Annabeth teased and chuckled at Thalia and I's faces of horror.

**"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."**

"Nope, he won't." Nico stated.

**"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

Everyone flinched at that.

**Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"**

"No offense Chiron, but you need subject-changing classes." Connor and Travis stated.

**But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. **

Thalia groaned, "Of course you're not!"

**Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word **_**death.**_

"I didn't notice that..." Athena stated, deep in thought.

**The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.**

Everybody looked at me, wondering what I was talking about but I didn't answer them.

**"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."**

"Not if, are." Dad corrected.

**"Yes, child?"**

**"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"**

**Chiron's expression darkened.**

As did everybody else's except for my Annabeth.

**"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words care fully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. **

"Of course, do you think there is nothing after death?" Hades asked, raising an eyebrow.

**But for now ... until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."**

"What do you mean 'Until we know more'?" Nico asked but Chiron didn't answer him.

**"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

Everyone laughed at mine and Nico's horrified faces.

**"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."**

"We need to start those lessons immediately." Connor stated and Travis nodded in agreement.

**As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.**

"Actually people go in there everyday, the nymphs live there too." Leo stated.

"Leo? You do know you're talking to a book right?" Piper reminded, raising an eyebrow and Leo blushed, looking down at the ground while everybody chuckled at him.

**Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

"Scare him why don't you?" Demeter scolded.

**"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"**

Everyone looked at me oddly, raising an eyebrow and I blushed, looking down at the ground.

**"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"**

"How would he? He just came from the mortal world and never used a sword before coming except when he fought Alecto." Artemis stated while Chiron blushed in embarrassment.

**"My own—?"**

**"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."**

"Not going to work." Dad advised and I nodded in agreement.

"I need a specific sword because the rest don't balance." I stated when everyone sent us questioning glances.

**I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, **

"A cool one." Ares said and everyone nodded in agreement.

**but there was too much else to think about, **

"It is a lot to take in." Athena agreed to everyone else shock.

**so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much),**

"I wonder why." Apollo said, laughing with everyone at Chiron expression.

**the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, **

All us demi-gods smiled at that, we loved the campfire, it was the best part of the day where we all hang out and relax and aren't fighting.

**and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.**

**"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.**

"Of course what did you think the arena was for?" Ares asked, raising an eyebrow while I flushed in embarrassment.

**"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. **

Nico snorted, "Usually? Just scare him!" He exclaimed while Chiron blushed yet again.

**Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."**

"I always have wondered, why did we call it the mess hall even though it's not messy?" Apollo asked thoughtfully but we just rolled our eyes and ignored him.

**Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.**

"Yea it's weird to call it a pavilion when it doesn't have a roof or walls." Travis stated and the demi-gods nodded while the gods shrugged, really not caring.

**"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.**

"We still have to eat." Chiron stated.

**Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird.**

**"We still have to eat, don't we?" **

"Stop repeating yourself Chiron." Apollo stated, grinning, making everybody groan.

**I decided to drop the subject.**

**Finally, he showed me the cabins. **

Everyone grinned at this while Hades frowned since he didn't have a cabin.

**There were twelve of them, **

Jason, Leo, and Piper looked confused at that while the rest of the future demi-gods grinned and everybody else were confused at that.

**nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, **

Jason, Piper, and Leo got more confused at that.

**with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.**

"Hey!" Everyone exclaimed, glaring at me. I held my hands up in defense.

"Sorry but you have to admit that they are since every cabin is completely different from the one before." I defended and they shrugged, seeing my point.

**Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. **

"See?" I stated and they nodded, apologizing to me.

**Number nine had smokestacks, **

Hephaestus and Leo grinned, "Hephaestus/Mine!" They exclaimed.

**like a tiny factory. **

"Of course it does." Leo stated and Travis looked thoughtful.

"I wonder what it looks like on the inside." He wondered and Leo looked confused.

"Wouldn't you know when you do cabin check since you're a camp counselor?" He asked but Travis shook his head.

"Chiron doesn't let me do that just in case I boost up the points for my cabin, try to steal, or do something like that." He stated and we nodded in understanding.

"Too bad, it's awesome!" Leo exclaimed, grinning and Travis glared at him for saying that.

**Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. **

"Mine!" Demeter proudly said.

**Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. **

"MINE/Apollo's!" Rachel and Apollo yelled/stated.

**They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).**

"I didn't know you played basketball!" Travis exclaimed in shock, "I never saw you play, you were usually training or swimming." He stated.

**In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit.**

All the demigods, Grover, Chiron, and Rachel smiled at that, remembering the camp fire.

**Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.**

Hestia smiled, looking shocked, "You noticed me!" She exclaimed and everyone looked at her in confusion while I smiled at her and nodded, "The campers never notice me." She added, seeing everyone's confused expression which cleared at that.

**The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them.**

"Mine/Zeus!" Thalia, Jason, and Zeus said proudly.

**Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.**

"Mine." Hera said quietly, smiling.

**"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.**

"Yep." Everyone answered.

**"Correct," Chiron said.**

**"Their cabins look empty."**

"They are." Hera and Zeus said.

"Until we come." Thalia and Jason stated and everyone looked warily at Hera but she didn't seem to care and everyone was shocked at that because she usually did.

**"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."**

**Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot.**

"Mascot?" Hermes repeat, raising an eyebrow, "Never thought of it like that." The gods nodded in agreement.

**Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. **

Jason and Piper looked even more confused at that.

**But why would some be empty?**

"Easy, the pact and virgin goddesses." Apollo said.

**I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.**

Everyone looked confused at that except dad, who smiled at me and I smiled back.

**It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor.**

"Mine/ Poseidon." Dad and I answered.

**I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

"It's not like Poseidon would blast his own son." Athena stated while Aphrodite squealed:

"It's like your calling him! Oh I love father-son moments!"

**Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. **

"Of course not I haven't had kids in years!" Dad stated.

**The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."**

"Yea I would too." Thalia, Nico, and Jason agreed, remembering themselves staying all alone in their cabins and how it felt.

**Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.**

"Of course." Hera stated, and all the gods glared at her.

**Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists.**

"MINE!" Ares yelled.

"They did." Connor and Travis told us.

**The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. **

"Clarisse." Everyone who knew her said.

**She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, **

"Yea she is, though she has a soft side." My Annabeth said and Ares glared at her while Travis, Connor, Thalia, Nico, and I nodded in agreement and everyone who saw that was shocked that a daughter of Ares had a soft side.

"What would get a daughter of Ares to turn soft?" Persephone asked.

"What usual gets people soft?" Travis asked instead.

"Love." Aphrodite stated, sighing dreamily and everyone who didn't know she was right rolled their eyes, not thinking that love can change a child of Ares.

"Actually, she's right." Connor corrected.

"What?" Everyone who didn't know yelled in disbelief.

"A daughter of Ares was changed because of _Love_?" Aphrodite inquired hopefully and Travis, Connor, Thalia, Nico, my Annabeth, and I nodded which made her squeal in excitement, "Because of whom?" She demanded.

"Our little brother Chris Rodriguez." Travis and Connor stated and she squealed.

"Chris?" Hermes repeated and they nodded, "Wow…who would have thought." He muttered.

**and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

**I kept walking, **

"Good idea, her initiations aren't good." Travis said, making a face.

**trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.**

"Of course, the party ponies are wild centaur but they are awesome and throw great parties." Nico stated.

**"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."**

**"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."**

"Yes." Everyone answered.

**He smiled down at me. **_**"The **_**Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."**

**"But, shouldn't you be dead?"**

Everyone laughed at that, "Blunt Percy!" Grover exclaimed, laughing with everyone else.

**Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about **_**should **_**be. The truth is, I **_**can't **_**be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

"Yes you are." Everyone agreed.

**I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.**

"Mine either." Mostly everyone –other than Chiron, Athena, and both Annabeth's- agreed.

**"Doesn't it ever get boring?"**

**"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."**

Everyone looked down at that.

**"Why depressing?"**

**Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.**

"Of course, no one would want to talk about it." Hestia stated, staring sympathetically at Chiron who was staring sadly at the ground.

**"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."**

"Still need those lesson." Travis and Connor repeated again.

**The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

"MINE/HERMES!" Connor, Travis, and Hermes yelled.

**When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.**

Everyone chuckled at that while both Annabeth's blushed.

**I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek.**

Everyone made a face at that lame joke.

**There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.**

"That's because it is." Everybody who knew Annabeth confirmed while they blushed.

**"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery **

I shuddered at that and everyone who knew why, laughed while I blushed and everyone else was confused.

"Percy is a hopeless disaster at archery." My Annabeth explained making me blushed harder and everyone else laugh.

**class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"**

**"Yes, sir."**

Athena grunted in annoyance at that.

**"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."**

**Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on **_**old. **_

Connor, Travis, and Hermes frowned at that, glaring at me.

**The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it... ?**

"Caduceus." Past Annabeth stated.

"I know that." I grumbled.

**A caduceus.**

"See?" I confirmed.

"Sorry." Past Annabeth apologized.

**Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. **

"I wonder why." Hermes grumbled, glaring at all the gods and goddesses who had children who looked down guiltily.

**Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. **

Jason, Piper, and Leo looked confused because when they saw Hermes cabin in the future there probably wasn't any sleeping bags around.

**It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

"Nice description." Past Annabeth approved.

**Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.**

"Of course." My Annabeth stated, smiling.

**"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."**

**He galloped away toward the archery range.**

I shuddered again and everyone chuckled.

**I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.**

**"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."**

**So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself.**

Everyone laughed at that while I blushed.

"Naturally, though it was more funny when you see it." Travis and Connor stated.

**There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.**

"Of course, they never do." Travis stated and Connor nodded.

**Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven."**

**"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.**

"Huh?" Leo asked in confusion.

"Regular means child of Hermes and undetermined in unknown." My Annabeth explained.

"Oh." Leo understood but still looked confused.

**I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."** **Everybody groaned.**

Hermes looked disappointed at that.

**A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward.**

**"Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."**

**The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.**

Thalia, my Annabeth, Nico, and my faces darkened at that, remembering what happened to Luke, fortunately nobody else noticed.

**"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing.**

"I was not!" Both Annabeth exclaimed.

"How would you know? This is in the future." Grover asked past Annabeth who blushed, realizing that.

"I just know I didn't." She stated stubbornly.

**She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."**

Nico chuckled, "You make it sound like he's going to die." He stated.

**"For now?" I asked.**

**"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."**

"I like this boy." Demeter stated and Thalia, my Annabeth, Nico, and my moods darkened and nobody noticed.

**I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.**

"That's always a good thing to remember." Nico stated, chuckling.

**I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, **

"Undetermined." Everyone declared.

**some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.**

"Those are my children." Hermes stated and Connor and Travis nodded.

**"How long will I be here?" I asked.**

"Unknown, but knowing your father, you will be claimed soon." Zeus stated and dad nodded.

**"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."**

**"How long will that take?"**

"Like I said before, soon." Zeus repeated.

**The campers all laughed.**

**"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

"He's already seen it." Ares stated.

**"I've already seen it."**

Everyone laughed at mine and Ares' identical looks of horror at saying the same thing.

**"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.**

"That's mean." Hestia, Artemis, Persephone, and Hera said while the god's flinched thinking, _is this really what our kids think of us_?

**When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."**

"You do." Everybody stated and I glared at everybody.

"You do know you're talking to a book right now, right?" I grumbled and everybody blushed, going back to the book.

**"What?"**

Everyone groaned and I glared at them.

**She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."**

"No Annabeth! He still the one! Don't give up on him! He could be the one!" Connor and Travis yelled in mock horror and started singing 'He could be the one' while both Annabeth's and I blushed deeply.

**"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"**

"That's not a small feat I have to say, so don't treat it like one." Athena advised.

"I don't, I was just frustrated at that time." I answered and she nodded, now understanding.

**"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"**

**"To get killed?"**

Everyone chuckled at that, "That's one way to look at it!" Piper exclaimed.

**"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

"Yea." All the demi-gods stated while I glared at them.

**I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was **_**the **_**Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..."**

"It was." Everyone stated.

**"Yes."**

**"Then there's only one."**

**"Yes."**

**"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..."**

**"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."**

**"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."**

"You know he's right," Piper started and everyone looked shocked, "That doesn't make sense." Everyone nodded, agreeing.

**"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them arche types. Eventually, they re-form."**

"Ok that makes a lot more sense." Piper stated.

**I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"**

**"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."**

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?" Jason asked.

"Wait." My Annabeth stated, smiling while I blushed deeply, remembering how she knew.

**"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"**

"Oh." Jason stated, realizing why she said to wait.

**"You talk in your sleep."**

Everyone burst out laughing when that was said and I blushed even deeper.

**"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"**

"So you do know something!" Athena teased and I glared at her.

"Mom…" Both Annabeth's sighed.

**Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her.**

"Ok I doubt that would happen." Hades and Nico stated, rolling their eyes.

**"You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."**

"You know I don't really get that." Thalia started thoughtfully, "We call them the kindly ones yet they aren't kind." She finished and everybody shrugged, not really caring.

**"Look, is there anything we **_**can **_**say without it thundering?" **

"Not really." Everyone stated and Zeus glared around the room.

**I sounded whiny, **

"You did." My Annabeth confirmed.

**even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."**

The gods looked mad at that, "Sorry I didn't know how camp went." I apologized before a fight could start and the anger disappeared as they forgave me.

**I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."**

"See? I didn't know yet." I stated and they nodded, understanding now.

**She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.**

**"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said.**

"Not your mortal parent, your _im_mortal parent." Athena corrected.

**"She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."**

Everyone looked down at that while Nico and Thalia looked confused at that since they had met my mom in the future.

**"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."**

**"He's dead. I never knew him."**

"Nope, he's immortal, he can't die." Athena stated.

"I know that now." I answered.

**Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids.**

"I always do and it's the same everytime." Both Annabeth's confirmed.

**"Your father's not dead, Percy."**

"Not even close." Dad agreed.

**"How can you say that? You know him?"**

"No." Both Annabeth's and dad stated.

**"No, of course not."**

**"Then how can you say—"**

**"Because I know **_**you.**_

"Actually you didn't really at the time." Nico said and my Annabeth glared at him, leaning more into my chest.

**You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."**

"Well, unless someone allowed you in." Artemis added.

**"You don't know anything about me."**

"She knows more than you think." Aphrodite corrected.

**"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."**

**"How—"**

"Typical demi-god behavior." Hera stated, bored.

**"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."**

"No offense to you Olympians, but they are such a pain!" Leo exclaimed and all the demi-gods nodded in total agreement.

"None taken." The gods stated.

**I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"**

"Like I said before, typical demi-god behavior." Hera repeated.

**"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek.**

"You know I've been thinking," Piper started, "We have dyslexia because we read ancient Greek but what I don't get is while we have one parent that reads ancient Greek our other parents read English so why can't we read both. I know it's not because you have stronger D.N.A because you don't have D.N.A, our other parents do." She finished and everyone looked shocked and thoughtful at that. When nobody could think of anything they looked at both Annabeth's and Athena but they just shrugged.

"We have no clue either." They stated together and everyone looked shocked at that but decided not to worry about it right now and went back to the book.

**And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battle field reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. **

"And I'm totally glad I have it or I would be dead already." I said appreciatively.

**As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. **

"Way too much." Thalia added and my Annabeth, Nico, Connor, Rachel, and Travis nodded in agreement, chuckling, while I glared at them.

**Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. **

"Hey!" Rachel exclaimed, offended, and Annabeth sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Rachel you're not a regular mortal." She reminded and Rachel blushed sheepishly at that.

**Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."**

"You know that's a really scaring thought." Jason stated and everyone nodded in agreement.

**"You sound like ... you went through the same thing?"**

"Of course she did, most demi-gods do." Demeter stated.

**"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."**

"I wonder what would happen if a mortal somehow got in and we gave them nectar and ambrosia, thinking they were a demi-god…" Ares wondered and everyone glared at him.

"Don't even think about it Ares." Persephone warned.

**"Ambrosia and nectar."**

**"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."**

**A half-blood.**

"Yes, didn't she already say that?" Ares stated and I glared at him.

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

"Yea the same thing happened to me." Nico agreed.

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

"Clarisse, it always is." All the demi-gods, Grover, and Chiron said and the gods raised an eyebrow at that.

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin**

Ares was glaring at me fiercely now but I was unaffected.

**was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

"Typical children of Ares." Dionysus stated boredly.

**"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

**"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

"She better not." Athena growled between her teeth, glaring at Ares who shivered at her glare.

_**''Erre es korakas!"**_ **Annabeth said, which I somehow under stood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. **

"It is." Dad stated while my Annabeth, Connor, and Travis shivered, remembering the fight we had with the pack of crows(A/N: It was crows right? I'm pretty sure it was) before I went to the sea of monsters with Annabeth and Tyson. Everyone noticed that but shrugged it off and thankfully didn't question us about it.

**"You don't stand a chance."**

"They never do." Athena stated proudly.

**"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

Ares was now cowering in fear at the glare Dad was sending his way which is a pretty impressive feat since Ares is a hard person to scare.

**"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

**I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"**

"Yes, got a problem with that punk?" Ares growled through his teeth.

"Ares you do know you're talking to a book, right?" Athena reminded him and he slumped in his chair grumbling something like 'Stupid Owlhead'.

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

"Like father, like daughter." Everyone stated.

**"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

Everyone was trying to hold in their laughter at that while some were quietly chuckling into their hands and I was looking at everything except for Ares who was glaring murderously at me.

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**

All the people who knew what was going to happen smirked and chuckled quietly and luckily nobody else noticed.

**"Percy."**

Travis snorted, "That's not going to work, she'll just continue to call you Prissy."

"I realized that." I stated, glaring at him.

**"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

**"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.**

**"Stay out of it, wise girl."**

I smiled, realizing this was the first time I heard that name and decided to call her it.

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it,**

My Annabeth was now being glared at by dad but it stopped when Athena hit him upside the head.

**and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**

My dad looked mad because he knew that was true but was still against it.

**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, **

All the future demi-gods and Ares snorted at that, knowing I couldn't beat her fist wise –only sword wise(Ares didn't think this part) – while I just glared at them.

**but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**

My dad paled at this while Ares grinned widely and smugly at him.

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. **

Ares smirked at me in smug but I just ignored him.

**She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. **

"Now that's just embarrassing, the boys bathroom is one thing, but bringing a boy into the girls bathroom to do this is just cruel." Nico stated and all the boys nodded in agreement.

**There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I **_**could **_**think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

Everyone laughed at that while Nico said, "Trust that to be your thoughts as you're about to get your head shoved down a toilet."

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

"Uggghhh, I _hate_ when that happens!" Connor exclaimed and all the other demi-gods nodded.

**"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."**

And now Ares was shriveling under the death glare from my dad at that comment.

**Her friends snickered.**

And now Ares was practically a puddle under it.

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

"Owwwww!" I exclaimed, rubbing my throbbing arm where Annabeth had just hit me.

"I was not watching through my fingers." She said angrily.

"Ok, sorry it just looked like that to me!" I apologized and she seemed to calm down but was still glaring at me.

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. **

"What did you think it would smell like?" Katie asked, raising an eyebrow at me and I blushed, choosing to ignore that question.

**I strained to keep my head up. **

"Not going to work." All the demi-gods stated while Ares smiled smugly.

**I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

Ares smug smile slowly slipped from his face while one grew on my dad's.

**Then something happened.**

Everyone leaned forward in anticipation, even the people who already knew what was going to happen, they'd only heard rumors about it, not the real story.

**I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**

Everyone burst out laughing and I was now being glared fiercely by Ares but he stopped because my dad glared at him once more.

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt.**

The laughing increased at this and Ares was fighting not to hurt me because my dad was watching him.

**The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**

All the demi-gods laughter grew even more at that, picturing it.

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her.**

**But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**

The laughed increased even more at this.

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**

"That. Was. Awesome!" Connor, Travis, Grover, Leo, Jason, and Nico exclaimed while all the girls rolled their eyes at the boy's antics and I blushed.

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared.**

I was now being glared at by both Annabeth's and Athena and I shriveled under them.

**She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.**

"Of course I was shocked; you just made the toilets explode!" My Annabeth exclaimed.

**I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

"That's cool." Nico stated and the rest of the boys nodded in agreement.

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you ..."**

"Because he's a son of Poseidon." Connor answered for me.

**"I don't know."**

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. **

"Of course, it's not every day Clarisse gets owned." Travis stated and was now being glared at by Ares.

**Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."**

Nico poked me, "Nope, still alive, which is incredibly awe-inducing considering how many life and death situations you've been confronted with." He said as an afterthought and my dad paled.

"There's a lot of them?" He asked and we just didn't answer him which seemed to worry him even more.

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**

The laughing began again and I was yet again being glared at by Ares.

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**

All the demi-gods laughed harder, picturing Clarisse doing this.

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.**

"Both." My Annabeth answered, interrupting herself.

**"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

**"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

"What do you have planned?" My dad asked Annabeth who smiled innocently.

"I have no clue what you are talking about." She answered cluelessly and my dad sighed in defeat, knowing he'd get nothing from her.

"Well that's done, who wants to read next?" My Annabeth asked and Nico raised his hand.

"I will." He decided and My Annabeth handed him the book.

**Well, there's the next chapter and it's 26 pages and around 8,500 word, I find this a great accomplishment. Please review and I'll try to update as soon as I can!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys, how are you all? I hope you're great. Now what was I going to say, it's right on the tip of my tongue…oh yea, MERRY CHRISTMAS! As you see where all your story alerts are sent, I decided as a Christmas gift, to update every single story of mine(even 'Thalia's Decision' which I feel VERY accomplished about!). I hope you enjoy this chapter it took a lot of time to do even though it's a pretty short chapter, so enjoy!  
>Disclaimer: Don't own anything!<strong>

Chapter eight

"**My Dinner Goes up in Smoke," **Nico read.

**Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. **

"Of course, it is camp after all. It's not every day that someone wins against Clarisse." Thalia stated.

**Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.**

I glared at by both Annabeth's and Athena for that, "Sorry I didn't mean to get you wet." I apologized and both Annabeth's looked away but Athena still glared.

**She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), **

Leo and Hephaestus smiled at that.

**the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man),**

Hermes smiled sadly, "Pan."

**and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**

"I love the climbing wall!" Leo exclaimed and Piper rolled her eyes.

"Of course you do hothead." She said tiredly and he glared at her.

"Beauty Queen." He countered back, making her glare back. Nico, sensing a fight, wisely started reading again.

**Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, **

Dad and I smiled at that.

**where the trail led back to the cabins.**

**"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."**

**"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."**

Again I was glared at by both Annabeth's, Athena, and Ares(because of what I did to Clarisse).

**"Whatever."**

**"It wasn't my fault."**

Everyone looked at me in disbelief and I rolled my eyes.

"You all have to remember that this is in the past and at the time I didn't know I was a son of Poseidon." I reminded them and they all blushed in embarrassment, having forgotten about that.

**She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it _was _my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. **

"See?" I showed, making them even more embarrassed but they nodded.

**But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.**

Everyone burst out laughing at that while I blushed wildly.

**"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.**

The demi-gods smiled at Rachel.

"Seems like it's your turn to come into the Rachel." Piper stated but Rachel just grinned and shook her head.

"That won't happen for another two books because of a certain _someone_," She glared fiercely at me when she said this so I guessed she meant me, "Made an idiotic mistake." She growled, glaring harder and I threw my hands up in exclamation.

"Hey, in my defense you chose the wrong time and place. How was I supposed to know it was you when I was so paranoid with what was going on?" I questioned and her glare disappeared.

"You know, I've always wondered why they were chasing you, good thing we're reading these books and that question will be answered soon." She stated and I scowled.

"Don't remind me, I still hate that we're reading about my life through my thoughts." I grumbled, folding my arms.

"Um, sorry to interrupt but what the Hades are you talking about?" Leo asked and our heads snapped up to look at him.

"You'll see in the third book." We stated, making him groan as Nico continued to read.

**"Who?"**

**"Not who. What."**

"Wait, so if it's not you Rachel then who is it? And what do you mean by 'What'?" Jason asked and Rachel grinned.

"You'll see." She said swiftly making Jason, Piper, and Leo groan in annoyance and anger, tired of that answer already.

**The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."**

**I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**

"Must get tiring since no one ever answer's your question's." Thalia grinned and I scowled.

"Tell me about it, I would love if someone gave me a straight answer for once." I stated.

"Yet you do it to us." Piper, Leo, and Jason muttered, still miffed about the whole 'You'll see' thing.

**I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below.**

"Naiads." Everyone stated, the goddesses and girls in boredom and the gods and boys dreamily making the girls hit, glare, scold, or just ignore them.

**They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**

"Technically they kind of are." Grover stated.

**I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**

"Don't encourage them," Hera scolded. "Naiads are terrible flirts."

**"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."**

Hera and My Annabeth stared at each other in horror, not believing they thought the same thing while everyone else laughed quietly at their expressions.

**"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."**

Everyone laughed, "Nice try Percy, unless you want to die!" Nico stated and I smiled happily.

"Don't worry, I was home." I stated and everyone –minus the obvious *cough*HadesAresHeraDionysus*cough*- smiled warmly at me.

**Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You _are _home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."**

"Nope there's one other place." Jason disagreed and we smiled while the gods shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

**"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**

"Hey!" All the demi-gods exclaimed while some gods glared at me.

"Sorry." I apologized but they still glared at me but stopped after a while.

**"I mean _not human. _Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."**

**"Half-human and half-what?"**

Everyone groaned, "Hey, cut me some slack, I'm a slow learner!" I exclaimed, glaring at everyone.

"Yea as slow as a snail." Connor mumbled, making everyone laughed and me glared harder at him, making him gulp nervously, "I mean, you're brilliant Percy, definitely one of the smartest people I've ever met!" He sugarcoated and I glared at him one last time before turning back to the book.

**"I think you know."**

"Half-god." Everyone stated and I glared at them.

"I know that now. And don't you all realize you're talking to a book?" I asked making them all blush –even Ares and Hades though they glared at me too.

**I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**

"That's the god side of you coming out." Athena and both Annabeth's stated.

**"God," I said. "Half-god."**

**Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."**

"Well, that was blunt." Leo stated and everyone laughed while My Annabeth blush, hitting him upside the head.

**"That's ... crazy."**

All the gods looked offended at that, "Sorry, it was hard to take in and believe." I apologized and they relaxed more but were still offended.

**"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"**

The gods cowered as the goddesses glared at them in anger and disapproval and all us demi-gods chuckled behind our hands making the gods glare at us.

**"But those are just—" I almost said _myths _again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, _I _might be considered a myth.**

"Well you're one now." Everyone stated and I groaned glaring at them.

"Don't remind me." I grumbled, still mad that I was.

**"But if all the kids here are half-gods—"**

**"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."**

"Thank you encyclopedia." Nico teased, "Ow!" He exclaimed, rubbing his head where Annabeth had hit him.

**"Then who's your dad?"**

Grover winced, "Bad thing to ask." He stated as past Annabeth glared at me.

"Sorry." I apologized and a second later she looked away.

**Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.**

"Yup." Everyone stated though not everyone knew what was going on, they just realized by the way she was acting.

**"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."**

"Really?" Piper asked, "I've always loved history." She answered at everyone's confused looks which disappeared at that.

**"He's human."**

"Yup." Everyone stated.

**"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"**

"Sorry." I apologized at the Gods glares, the goddesses glaring because of the sexist thing in that and the gods because I thought it was only the gods instead of the goddesses.

**"Who's your mom, then?"**

**"Cabin six."**

"Um, Annabeth you did know he was new to camp right? Because, knowing Percy, he wouldn't know what that mean." Thalia stated and glared back at her when My Annabeth glared at her.

**"Meaning?"**

**Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."**

Athena smiled proudly down at both Annabeth's who smiled back.

**Okay, I thought. Why not?**

And I was now getting glared at by two daughters of Athena(same person) and one goddess who's name I'm pretty sure is Athena.

**"And my dad?"**

"Poseidon but in the book it's undetermined at the time." Demeter stated.

**"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."**

"I do!" Connor, Travis, Nico, Leo, Apollo, Hermes, and Jason exclaimed while all the girls and goddesses rolled their eyes and hit them up the head and everyone else just ignored them.

**"Except my mother. She knew."**

"Yes, she did." Dad agreed.

**"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."**

And now the gods were getting glared at by the goddesses.

**"My dad would have. He loved her."**

Dad smiled as Aphrodite squealed happily.

**Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble.**

"Sorry." Both Annabeth's apologized but I just shrugged.

"It's in the past." I stated.

**"Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens."**

**"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**

All the gods and goddesses in the room who had demi-god children looked down, ashamed, while the goddesses who didn't glared(Hera, Artemis, and Persephone) or stared sternly at them(Hestia), while the demi-gods shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

**Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."**

And the awkwardness grew.

**I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**

And now it was unbearable as I cleared my throat uncomfortably.

**"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"**

"Depends." Connor stated, not being able to take the quietness, other than the reading of course.

**"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter,** **you're probably not a real powerful force. **

Not even Aphrodite and Demeter commented at that, they were still ashamed and if you were at camp right now you would see an overwhelming number of claiming happening, in the end only about 15 were unclaimed, probably being minor gods and goddesses children.

**The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. **

My Annabeth walked over and sat down beside Thalia, hugging her tightly and Thalia hugged her just as tightly back.

**A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."**

"Who?" Leo asked but got no answer.

**"So monsters can't get in here?"**

**Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."**

**"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**

**"Practice fights. Practical jokes."**

Everyone looked unconsciously at Connor, Travis, and Hermes who were grinning.

**"Practical jokes?"**

"Yup." Connor, Travis, and Hermes stated.

**"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."**

"That always confused me." Connor stated and a lot of the demi-gods nodded in agreement while Apollo nodded.

"The mist is very confusing." He agreed, for once being smart.

**"So ... you're a year-rounder?"**

"Yup." Past Annabeth stated while my Annabeth smiled and answered, "Nope." Which seemed to confuse everyone but she just smiled at them before gesturing for the reading to continue.

**Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.**

Everyone looked at both Annabeth's clay beads and nodded when they saw the ring while they both blushed at all the attention.

**"I've been here since I was seven," she said.**

"Wow that's young." Apollo stated in shock.

"Not as young as I was." Jason grumbled but calmed down when Piper rested a hand on his shoulder, smiling at him and calming him instantly. Luckily no one noticed this except, of course, Aphrodite who beamed, made her love book appear in her hands, and started jotting down things in it to everyone's confusion and curiosity.

**"Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."**

"**Really? That must have been really weird." Leo guessed and both Annabeth's nodded.**

**"Why did you come so young?"**

"Oh, bad thing to ask." Grover stated as Past Annabeth glared at me.

"Sorry." I apologized.

**She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."**

Everyone chuckled at that, "Just what I expected you to say." Chiron murmured and everyone nodded in agreement as both Annabeth's blushed.

**"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"**

"It would be suicide but yes you could." Both Annabeth's stated.

**"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless ..."**

"Wow, three Annabeth's repeated themselves? Mind. Blown." Connor stated and Thalia gasped in shocked causing everyone to look at her in confusion.

"I'm sorry but…you had a _mind_? Since _when_!" She demanded. Everyone burst out laughing as Connor blushed while Thalia grinned in satisfaction receiving high-fives from all the demi-gods.

**"Unless?"**

**"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time …"**

Everyone looked down at that, but for different reasons, some(past people) because they knew what happened and others(future demi-gods including me) at what had happened to said person during the second titan war.

**Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**

"Not at all." Both Annabeth's whispered and I hugged my Annabeth tighter, letting her rest her head on my chest while Grover hugged Past Annabeth comfortingly.

**"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"**

"Ambrosia." Everyone stated and I glared at them.

"I know that now." I grumbled, folding my arms and pouting in frustration.

**"Ambrosia."**

"See?" I stated and they nodded in understanding.

**"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."**

The gods, Chiron, Past Annabeth, Past Grover, and the future demi-gods who didn't know what was going on(Thalia, Nico, Rachel, Jason, Leo, Piper) involuntarily leaned forward at that, hoping what was going on would be revealed.

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you _do _know some thing?"**

Thalia tisked, "Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth, shouldn't you have known by then that Percy is a hopeless case when it comes to knowing things?" She teased and I blushed as everyone burst out laughing.

**"Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"**

Everyone who didn't know leaned forward even more with excited faces, creating a very funny picture for the demi-gods that did know(Connor, Travis, My Annabeth, and I).

**She clenched her fists.**

"Ohhhh, someone's angry!" Connor and Travis sang and now the twins had yet another thing in common, matching black eyes courtesy of My Annabeth.

**"I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so _normal_."**

"You've been to Olympus?" Apollo asked before adding, "Not including right now."

"You'll see." My Annabeth stated shortly.

**"You've been to Olympus?"**

**"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."**

"Oh." Apollo realized.

**"But... how did you get there?"**

**"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already.**

Thalia sighed again and everyone chuckled, remembering what she had said while I blushed again.

**"You _are _a New Yorker, right?"**

I was offended, "Of course I am!" I exclaimed.

"Percy, you do know you're talking to a book right?" She asked and I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, everyone else has been, is there a law or something saying I can't?" I asked stubbornly and she chuckled, shaking her head lovingly before snuggling more into my chest and my arms tightened around her waist.

**"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.**

"Good." Both Annabeth's stated.

**"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. **

Past Annabeth and Athena's eyes widened as they gasp in shock, connecting the title with the information, realizing what had happened during the Solstice and they looked at My Annabeth, Connor, Travis, and I for confirmation and we nodded swiftly causing their eyes to widen even more.

"What's going on?" Hermes asked curiously but he got no answer from the two shocked brainiacs.

**And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon.**

"And of course you're a son of Poseidon." Athena stated while I blushed.

**But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."**

Thalia tisked again.

**I shook my head. I wished I could help her, but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.**

All the girls and goddesses sighed, "Boys." But they all(except for Artemis though she had a little) said it fondly and lovingly, causing all the gods and boys, including myself, to smile slightly, _glad to know they love us_, I thought to myself.

**"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to her self. "I'm _not _too young. If they would just tell me the problem …"**

"Don't worry Annabeth, you do get you quest." I reassured Past Annabeth and she smiled appreciately at me.

**I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. **

Right on cue all the gods and boys, including mine, stomach's growled, causing the girls and goddesses to roll their eyes.

**Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.**

My Annabeth blushed in embarrassment, "That's what I was doing." She answered and I smiled, kissing her forehead and pulling her closer into my chest.

**Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, **

Chiron looked offended at the words I chose and I smiled apologetically and sheepishly at him.

**waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. **

"Hermes' kids." Everyone stated and Hermes felt a sense of pride rise in him.

**They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers.**

Hermes' grin widened at that while Connor and Travis had innocent expressions on that said, 'What? Me? Impossible!'.

**Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.**

Hermes eyes flashed with desire, he probably hoped one of his kids would steal that. Dad, sensing what he was thinking, glared at Hermes in warning who shivered and shrunk down in his seat.

**The counselor, Luke, came over. **

Pain flashed through My Annabeth's, Thalia's, Nico's, Connor's, Travis', Rachel's, and my eyes but it disappeared so quick that no one noticed it.

**He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, **

All of us who knew what exactly had taken place inside Luke that night(the seven teenagers, including myself, from above)flinched and a few people noticed that time but decided not to ask.

**from before but his smile was intact.**

We smiled slightly at that.

**"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."**

**I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**

Travis and Connor looked offended, "Children of Hermes do not kid about stealing!" They exclaimed and everyone rolled their eyes but chuckled while Hermes grinned proudly at them and they grinned back.

**I said, "Thanks."**

**"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**

"Yup." I stated, not caring that I was talking to a book.

**"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods." **

"No one does at first, it takes a while." All the demi-gods stated.

**"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."**

Every demi-god nodded in agreement at that.

**The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.**

The seven teenagers from before flinched yet again, remembering what had happened because of that hate and bitterness and a couple more people saw this but they still didn't comment.

**"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**

"Yup." Hermes stated proudly.

**He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, **

The seven flinched again and this time everyone noticed but didn't comment.

**but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."**

**"The wing-footed messenger guy."**

"Guess that's one way to remember me." Hermes stated, grinning.

**"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."**

"Of course not!" Hermes exclaimed, causing almost everyone(except for Hera, yes even Dionysus and Artemis smiled) to smile at him.

**I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.**

"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, who cares?" Leo asked, brining up a good point.

**"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**

Everyone who knew flinched at the reminder.

**"Once."**

**I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had any thing to do with how he got his scar.**

"No it doesn't." Hermes whispered, staring down at the floor.

**Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."**

All the demi-gods who were in the war flinched, _we tried to stay together but it didn't work_, I thought to myself.

"Why do you all keep flinching?" Athena asked but got no answer.

**He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.**

All of us from the war smiled sadly, remembering the times he was like that to us.

**I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**

"You're a son of Poseidon, Annabeth believes you are 'the one' for her. And you need to talk to the oracle to get a quest." Apollo summarized and blushed under everyone's shocked gazes, "What? I can be smart you know!" He exclaimed.

**Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."**

"So do we." All the demi-gods from the war muttered, confusing everyone who didn't' know what they were talking about even.

**"What do you mean?"**

**His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until...somebody special came to the camp."**

"You." Everyone stated making me blush in embarrassment.

**"Somebody special?"**

**"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. **

And both Annabeth's were glaring at the book now.

**Now, come on, it's dinnertime."**

All the gods and boys stomachs growled again and the girls and goddesses sighed, "We'll eat after this chapter." Athena decided and we nodded in understanding.

**The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.**

"Poseidon genes though I love your-" Annabeth started before stopping, not wanting to give anything away.

"What? You love his what?" Zeus asked, making us jump because he had been so quiet that we'd forgotten he was here.

**Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**

Hermes, Connor, and Travis cheered at that.

**The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.**

Artemis and Thalia smiled, they really loved that cabin.

**We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I mean _straight _out of the woods. **

"Nymphs." Everyone stated, the gods and some boys(Connor, Travis, and Leo) dreamily, causing them to get glared at and smacked upside the head.

**I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.**

Hermes chuckled, "That much have really shocked you." He guessed.

**In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.**

"There's a lot more now." Travis whispered so only the future demi-gods could hear and we nodded in agreement.

**At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. **

"Not anymore." Connor and Travis whispered, smiling gratefully at me, making me blush.

**I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.**

"TMI." Thalia grumbled while I blushed in embarrassment.

**I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**

"Did you just call Chiron fat?" Apollo teased, "Ow!" He exclaimed, rubbing his head where Artemis had just hit him.

"Stop being an idiot." She grumbled, glaring at him.

**Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.**

Apollo raised his hand, still wary of Artemis hitting him, "Yes Apollo?" Athena asked, raising an eyebrow at the hand.

"I don't get it. All your children have blond hair and you have black yet they have all your other features." He asked, being surprisingly thoughtful for if only a second. Athena thought for a while before shrugging.

"I guess it's just a trait that's still in me being passed down through them but other than that I don't know." She stated, confused, before the reading started again.

**Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**

All the girls had disgusted faces while the boys grinned, I just rooled my eyes nad ignored them.

**Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"**

"To the gods!" Everyone exclaimed automatically before looking confused.

"Why'd we just do that?" Hermes asked and Apollo just shrugged.

"Reflex?" He guessed.

**Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**

**Wood nymphs **

And now the gods and boy(boys being the Stoll's and Leo) were being hit upside the head for the dreamy looks that had appeared on their face at those words as they pictured them.

**came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! **

And now, of course, my stomach and all the rest of the gods and boys stomachs growled, causing the girls and goddesses to roll their eyes.

**My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—nonalcoholic, of course."**

Dionysus started grumbling and I caught the words "Nonalcoholic…unfair…stupid…rotten rules…" but chose not to comment and just ignore him.

**I said, "Cherry Coke."**

**The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**

**Then I had an idea. "_Blue _Cherry Coke."**

Everyone chuckled at that while I blushed.

**The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**

**I took a cautious sip. Perfect.**

**I drank a toast to my mother.**

The chuckling stopped to be replaced by sad smiles while I just grinned at Thalia, Nico, My Annabeth, Rachel, and the Stoll's.

**She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...**

And tension filled the room now at those words as every shifted uncomfortably in their seat and I sheepishly looked down at the ground.

**"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**

Stomach's again, causing Artemis to glare at us.

**I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion.**

**I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.**

Everyone rolled their eyes and most of the girls and goddesses muttered, "Boy's and their food…worse than mother bears with their cubs..."and I shave to say, it was a little creepy that they all had thought and said the same thing.

**"Come on," Luke told me.**

**As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest straw berry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**

My mouth watered at that as my and all the boys stomachs growled yet again.

**Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."**

The gods smiled, remembering the smell of the smoke.

**"You're kidding."**

"Nope." Apollo stated.

**His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.**

"It is a weird thought." Demeter stated thoughtfully.

**Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."**

Hermes smiled at that while Rachel, Thalia, My Annabeth, Connor, Travis, Nico, and I flinched.

**I was next.**

"Oh so dramatic." Apollo whispered but everyone heard him and they stifled their laughs as I blushed.

**I wished I knew what god's name to say.**

"Poseidon." Everyone stated and I just ignored them, they were going to keep doing it anyway, what was the point.

**Finally, I made a silent plea. _Whoever you are, tell me. Please._**

"I will." Dad whispered, too caught up in the book to realize he already had and that I was in the same room as him.

**I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**

**When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.**

"Why would you? It smells delicious!" Hermes exclaimed.

**It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**

"That would be an interesting thing to try…" Athena stated, trailing off as she got lost in thought and Nico continued to read.

**When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.**

For dramatic effect Apollo stomped his own foot, "Ow! He yelped rubbing his arm where Artemis had just hit him.

**Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."**

Ares grinned since that was his cabin.

**A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**

And now he was glaring at me but stopped and cowered in his seat when dad glared at him.

**"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."**

And now Dionysus was being glared at by most people in the room and all the goddesses were scolding him which was a very funny thing to see.

**Chiron murmured something.**

**"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."**

And the glares intensified at that.

**Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. **

Apollo, Hermes, and the Stoll's cheered at that, the Apollo and Hermes cabin's were very close after all, just like their fathers.

**We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

Every demi-god in the room smiled and nodded in agreement, even Jason, I guess us Greeks had grown on him. I wonder if the same thing has happened to me at the Roman camp and I wondered what I was doing right now, if I fit in, and if I made friends.

**Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.**

"You had a very long day, hard to believe it was only one day but it was." Athena stated.

**My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.**

All the girls and goddesses cooed at that, except for Artemis who just smiled thought Thalia and My Annabeth were doing it teasingly. I just blushed.

**When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**

"I love nights like that. I hate the one's where you lay awake in bed for hours not being able to sleep." Leo commented and all the demi-gods nodded in agreement.

**That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.**

"Yup." Hermes, Leo, Apollo, and the Stoll's stated.

**I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

"What's that mean?" Persephone asked but got no answer. Nico closed the book and Apollo, realizing the reading was over, just up and ran out of the room yelling, "FOOD!" and Leo, Connor, Travis, Hermes, and all the rest of the boy's and gods ran after him, except for me, Nico, Hades, and dad. I walked slowly with My Annabeth towards the door but we stopped when we were called.

"Percy, Annabeth, can we have a word with you please?" Athena asked, standing next to dad. We gulped in nervousness before turning around and walking towards our doom.

**YES! I FINISHED! Sorry, this chapter took sooooooo long to write even though it was pretty short, I just didn't have the motivation but I wanted to get it out by today so I pushed myself, staying up really late at night to write it(I'm talking like three O'clock) and waking up early(not that early, at 10 O'clock) and I finally finished it, I feel accomplished. Well I should probably go now before I bore you all with my consistent mumbo jumbo(gosh I love saying this!) babbling, so bye and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!:)**


	9. Author's note

**Hey guys, how are you all? Yeah, I know, I haven't updated at all in a long time. I'm sad to say that I have completely lost interest in this story honestly I never really was much into writing it in the first place and now I'm completely out of it and I can't really gather the inspiration to write it. In truth, I always pictured this story different then the way I've written it and that way has continued to pop up into my mind constantly and now the way I've pictured it is way too constant and interesting to ignore. So, I've decided that I'm going to rewrite this story on the way I always really pictured it. Don't worry, I'm going to keep the gods and the demigods but sadly I'm removing Percy from it, the way I'm rewriting it makes it take place **_**in **_**Lost Hero before the quest truly started, suspended in time. **

**But, even more, I'm bringing the camp half-blood campers into the story, this idea of them in it has plagued me the most because I'd love to write them reading the series with their godly parents to get to know more about the famous Percy Jackson as he truly is. Not many stories here on fanfiction really have them reading it so now I've decided to let them join. So I really apologize for this but I promise that I'll try to make the next story tons better than this one and I will be keeping some of the chapters similar yet they will be different because of the additions and taking Percy out. **

**So, I'll try to update soon with that new rewrite of this. I'm going to put it up as a different story and when I catch up to this one, I may delete this one but I think I'll actually keep this up just in case you like this one better than the new one. I am truly sorry if you don't like this change but if I kept the story going how it is I doubt I'll ever really update much again so…yeah. Goodbye reviewers, I'll get that story up soon! **


End file.
